Sport - Tennis

Bad day for under-14 third seeds

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE Oct. 22. The third seeds in both the boys and girls under-14 sections crashed out of the Nike junior Masters (under-12 and under-14) tennis championship at the Nike-Bhupathi Tennis Village here on Tuesday.

The third seeded G.K. Shwetha of Karnataka, playing a tentative game against a strokeful Saana Bhambri of Delhi, went down quickly at 0-6, 2-6 in the under-14 girls singles quarterfinals.

R.K. Praveen of Karnataka, hitting fluently on both the flanks, overpowered third seeded Karan Dhillon of West Bengal at 6-1, 6-0.

The top seed Sanam K. Singh of Chandigarh, second seed Sumit Prakash Gupta and fourth seeded N. Jeevan of Tamil Nadu joined Praveen in the semifinals.

Poojashree will meet Prerna Mythri of Andhra Pradesh in the under-12 girls singles final. Both recorded facile wins in the semifinals with Prerna beating Monica Menon of Delhi 6-3, 6-2 while Poojashree outplayed Sandhya Mallaya 6-2, 6-0.

The boys' under-12 singles final will be a re-run of Nike South Zone final, with Vikram Reddy of Andhra Pradesh taking on Sriram Balaji of Tamil Nadu.

Sriram was stretched to distance by a gritty Vijayanth Malik before winning 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4, while Reddy, after an erratic display in the first two sets, brushed up his act to beat Nehal Gaonkar of Maharashtra 6-3, 0-6, 6-1.

In the girl's under-14 semifinals, the top seed Sandra Gangotri will take on Saana Bhambri and Sandhya Nagaraj meets Vandana Murali of Tamil Nadu.

In the boy's section, R.K. Praveen will clash with Sanam K. Singh and N. Jeevan will play Sumit Prakash Gupta.

The results:

Boys under-12 singles (semifinals): Vikram Reddy (AP) bt Nehal Gaonkar (Mah) 6-3, 0-6, 6-1; Sriram Balaji bt Vijayanth Malik (Chd) 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4.

Boys under-14 singles (quarterfinals): N. Jeevan (TN) bt Rahul Belwal (Del) 6-0, 6-2; R.K. Praveen (Kar ) bt Karan Dhillon (WB) 6-1, 6-0; Sanam K. Singh (Chd) bt N.S. Mangal (TN) 6-2, 6-1; Sumit Prakash Gupta bt Kaushik S. Raju (Kar) 6-3, 6-4.

Girls under-12 singles (semifinals): Prerna Mythri (AP) bt Monica Menon (Del) 6-3, 6-2; Poojashree (Kar) bt Supriya Mallaya (Mah) 6-2, 6-0.

Girls under-14 singles (quarterfinals): Sandra Gangotri (AP) bt E. Ashmita (TN) 6-3, 6-1; Sanaa Bhambri (Del) bt G.K. Shwetha (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; Sandhya Nagaraj (AP) bt D. Aarthi (TN) 6-0, 6-2; Vandana Murali (TN) bt Tejeswini (AP) 6-2, 6-4.

Consolation events:

Boys under-12 singles: Ranjan Prasad (WB) bt Ritupalwan Gogoi (Asm) 6-3, 6-1; Udaykaran Puniah (Chd) bt Gaurav Walia (Mah) 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3).

Girls under-14 singles: Shivika Burman (WB) bt Neenu Sharma (Mah) 7-5, 6-4;Tejaswini bt D. Aarthi 6-2, 6-4; G.K. Shwetha bt E. Ashmita 7-5, 6-1.

Girls under-12 singles: Daniela Jones (WB) bt Soni Neogi (Asm) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1; Monica Menon (Del) bt Supriya Mallaya (Mah) 7-5, 6-1.

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