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Tennis
By Our Sports Reporter
Parija Maloo and Tejas Chaukulkar, both from Maharashtra, who won the girls' and boys' singles titles respectively in the Lanco-JHIC National Series junior tennis tournament in Hyderabad on Saturday.
The 12th seeded Karsolia was just too good for sixth-seed Tejas in the first set. Clearly erratic, the Maharashtra boy never threatened Karsolia. He even double-faulted, missed some simple net-points and his fancy for the sliced backhand return invariably landed him in trouble. Karsolia for his part played perfect tennis. Everything clicked for the standard 10th student from Lucknow. His first serve was deep and his cross-court returns impeccable. The way he rattled up a convincing 5-0 lead, it looked to be curtains for Tejas. The later, however, made some amends with some fine passing shots and a decent serve and volley game to pick three games in-a-row before losing the first set at 3-6. More importantly, those three games seemed to have instilled in Tejas self-confidence. Suddenly he was a completely transformed player. Packing his forehand with a perfect blend of power and precision, he started picking points at will. The stocky Karsolia looked clueless as Tejas made him run all over the court. The baseline rallies were often interspersed with effective lobs by Tejas that successfully upset his opponent's rhythm. In the decider, there was little to choose between the two. Both had their moments of immense satisfaction after essaying some unbelievable passing shots down the line and also some brilliant, forehand cross-court shots. Quite ominously, Karsolia started the set with a double-fault. After that both traded breaks to level the scores two-all. But, the more energetic Tejas looked in a better frame of mind while the visibly tiring Karsolia found it difficult to move around. That was also the phase when Tejas unleashed his trademark forehand shots, which invariably brooked no return. In a clever change of strategy, he slowed the game too by engaging in long rallies to gain an upper hand by attacking the weak backhand of Karsolia. A stroke of luck, which earned him a net-point, saw Karsolia reduce the lead to 4-5. Serving for the match, Tejas was surprised by his opponent's tenacity. He levelled the scores once again (five-all) with two breathtaking forehand cross-court returns that had Tejas rooted to the baseline. Tejas raised the level of his game when it mattered and was fortunate to see Karsolia fumble with a simple lob at the net and then hit a weak return into the net. This was just what he was looking for and soon wrapped up the set and the match with Karsolia hitting a deep return out. The girls' final got off to a surprising start with top-seed Parija trailing 0-3. It required some champion stuff to wriggle out of such a sluggish start. Parija did just that; she ensured that her best stroke - the forehand - did most of the damage. And as the set progressed, she had the satisfaction of even her backhand clicking. This proved to be too much for Poojasri whose first serve was awfully weak. That helped a lot in ensuring a high percentage of return of serve for Parija who quite predictably wrapped up the first set at 6-3 in 35 minutes. The second set was a much easier outing for Parija. Poojasri's body language suggested that she was tiring in the scorching heat. Though the Karnataka girl broke twice at 1-3 and 2-4 thanks to her very fluent forehand, they were just not good enough to stop Parija. Parija duly completed a `double' when she won the doubles title partnering Poojasree. They beat the Andhra duo of Niroshita and Sushrutha Reddy 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 while, Kinshuk Sharma of Chandigarh and Pranav Gandhi of Maharashtra defeated Krishna Karsolia and Amit Garg (Maharashtra) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to win the boys' doubles title. The results: finals: Boys: singles: Tejas Chaukulkar (Mah) bt Krishna Karsolia (UP) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Doubles: Kinshuk Sharma (Chd) & Pranav Gandhi (Mah) bt Krishna Karsolia (UP) & Amit Garg (Mah) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Girls: Singles: Parija Maloo (Mah) bt V. Poojasree (Kar) 6-3, 6-2. Doubles: Parija Maloo (Mah) & V. Poojasree (Kar) bt Niroshita (AP) & Sushrutha Reddy (AP) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
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