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Sundar in last four

BANGALORE June 5. Local lad Dhruv Sundar inexplicably dropped the first set at 4-6 to West Bengal's Karan Dhillon before wresting the next two at 6-1, 6-0 to book his place in the semifinals of the Wearhouse AITA Championship Series tennis at the Century Club courts on Thursday afternoon.

Karan, ranked higher than the left-handed Dhruv, just could not get going despite winning the first set and committed too many mistakes. The net chord too came in his way especially in the third set. Dhruv on the other hand tightened his play and passed his tiring opponent with ease on either flanks.

Top seed Prashanth Vijay Sunder of Tamil Nadu too looked tentative to start with against statemate Nithesh Natarajan.

With Nithesh leading 5-2 in the first the match looked headed for the decider.

Prashanth, however, found his fluency and with it the length to concede just one more game in the match which he won 7-5, 6-1. Prashanth will meet Dhruv in the semifinals.

Siddharth Alapati of AP caused a minor flutter when he out hit fourth seed R.K. Praveen of Karnataka in the quarterfinals. The Andhra boy, seeded eight, looked more aggressive and won with a degree of comfort at 6-3, 6-1.

Siddarth will run into second seed S. Prateek of Karnataka who won 6-0, 2-1 (conceded) when his rival Vishal M. Krishnan threw in the towel, complaining of dehydration. Vishal had earlier in the morning upset fifth seed Karthik S. Raj in a three setter.

In the girls' semifinals, top seed Vandana Murali (TN) will take on fourth seed Akshitha B. Raj while second seed Asha Nandakumar plays third seed Varsha Shivashankar in an all Karnataka affair.

* The results: Boys: under-18: singles: quarterfinals: Dhruv Sundar (Kar) bt Karan Dhillon (WB) 4-6, 6-1, 6-0; Prashanth Vijay Sundar (TN) bt Nithesh Natarajan (TN) 7-5, 6-1; S. Prateek (Kar) bt Vishal M. Krishnan (Kar) 6-0, 2-1 (conceded); R.K. Praveen (Kar) bt Siddharth Alapati (AP).

Pre-quarterfinals: R.K. Praveen bt R. Rohit (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; S. Prateek bt Kaushik S. Raju (Kar) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Siddharth Alapati bt Suraj Bikkannavar (Kar) 6-2, 6-4; Vishal M. Krishnan bt Karthik S. Raju (Kar) 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

Girls: under-18: singles: quarterfinals: Vandana Murali (TN) bt Sanjana Gopal (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; Varsha Shivashankar (Kar) bt Pooja Shetty (Kar) 7-5, 6-1; Asha Nandakumar (Kar) bt Amoolya Raghunath 6-1, 7-5; Akshitha B. Raj (Kar) bt P. Swathi (TN) 7-5, 7-5.

Pre-quarterfinals: Vandana Murali bt Karamjeet Kaur (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Sanjana Gopal bt Shubha A. Chakrala (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; Varsha Shivashankar bt Parvinder Kaur (Kar) 6-1, 6-0; Pooja Shetty bt Sanjuktha Barooah (Asm) 6-3, 6-1; Akshitha B Raj bt Gurmeet Kaur (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Amoolya Raghunath bt D. Harshini Reddy (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Asha Nandakumar bt Divya Dinakar (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; P. Swathi bt Anushree Thamanna (Kar) 7-5, 5-7, 6-0.

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