Sport - Tennis

Rain spoils Shabaz’s party

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Champions: The winners in the of the AITA super series.

BANGALORE: A downpour spoiled Shabaz Khan’s party in the Century Club-AITA Super Series junior tennis championship. The youngster from Maharashtra was on a course for an easy title triumph in the boys’ under-16 singles having taken the first set 6-2, and leading 4-1 in the second against Suraj Konwar of Gujarat when the skies opened up.

The rains lashed for half an hour and the clay court was water logged. The tournament committee of the Century Club then decide to declare both finalists as joint winners.

The lanky 15-year-old Shabaz, a trainee of the KSLTA’s High Performance Training Centre, had taken breaks in sixth and eighth games of the first set, toying with this rival sending down blistering forehand and a strong first serves.

Shabaz had earlier won the doubles title partnering Vishwesh Sinha (Mah) beating Surya Pawan of AP and Suraj Konawar in the final at 6-4, 6-3.

The second seeded B. Sowjanya of AP tamed a spirited Likitha Devaraj of Karnataka 7-5, 6-2 in under-16 singles final and the top seed, Dhruthi Venugopal of Karnataka defeated the third seed, Amreen Sheikh of AP 6-4, 6-3 for the under-12 singles title.

Dhruthi thus completed a fine double as she had won the girls under-12 doubles title partnering Sneha Reddy on Thursday.

The results (all finals):

Boys: U-16: Shabaz Khan (Mah) and Suraj Konwar (Guj)-joint winners;