Sport - Tennis   

Manu, Preethi get top billing

KOCHI DEC. 22. Karnataka's Manu Bajpai and Tamil Nadu's national sub-junior runner-up S.Preethi have been given the top billing in the under-16 boys and girls sections of the Bharat Petroleum AITA all-India ranking tennis tournament which begins at the Cochin Tennis Trust and Regional Sports Centre courts here on Monday.

Karnataka's R.Praveen and Ramesh Krishnan's daughter, Tamil Nadu's Gayatri Krishnan, have been given the pride of place in the under-14 sections.

The six-day event brings big-time tennis to Kochi after a four-year break. The tournament will be held on two surfaces. While the indoor Regional Sports Centre, which will host the girls events tomorrow, has clay courts, the CTT has synthetic courts.

The qualifying rounds which ended today were mostly one-sided affairs. Tamil Nadu's nine-year-old R.Vigneshwaran, son of former national circuit star K.G.Ramesh, was one of the qualifiers who impressed today as he fought his way to the main draw in both the under-14 and under-16 sections.

The Kerala Tourism Minister K.V.Thomas inaugurated the tournament this evening.

The seedings (top three only):

Under-16, boys: 1. Manu Bajpai (Karn), 2. Sujith Sachidanand (Karn), 3. R.K.Praveen (Karn). Girls: 1. S.Preethi (TN), 2. Gayatri Krishnan (TN), 3. J.Grace Hannah (TN).

Under-14, boys: 1. R.K.Praveen (Karn), 2. Sujith Sachidanand (Karn), 3. M.Fariz (TN).

The results (final qualifying round, winners make it to main draw):

Boys under-14 (best of 17 games): John Melvin (Ker) bt Shyam Babu (Ker) 9-2; Chandam S.Singh (TN) bt G.L.Vivek (Ker) 9-0; V.Sudarshan (TN) bt Reejo V. John (Ker) 9-6; Rishal M. George (Ker) bt N.R.Abhilash (Ker, 9-6); Jaiwin Ranjit (Ker) bt George Philip (Ker) 9-2; Tao Issarao (Ker) bt Eldo George (Ker) 9-4; R.Vigneshwaran (TN) bt B.Ashok Bheemrao (Ker) 9-8 (8-6); Vishak V.Gopal (Ker) bt Vivek Criton (Ker) 9-8 (7-4).

Boys under-16: R.Sharvanth Sidarth (TN) bt V.Sudarshan (Ker) 9-7; A.Anand (Ker) bt Shyam Babu (Ker) 9-1; J.B.Ratheesh (Ker) bt G.L.Vivek (Ker)O 9-1; Saneesh Samad (Ker) bt Ajay Deb (Ker) 9-2; Bruhath V.Raker (Karn) bt Jaiwir Vanjit (Ker) 9-3; Chandam S. Singh (TN) bt Reejo V. John (Ker) 9-1; R.Vigneshwaran (TN) bt G.L.Vineeth (Ker) 9-7; G.Chandu (Ker) bt Tao Issarao (Ker) 9-4. — Our Sports Reporter.

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