Sport - Tennis

Marquis enters semifinals

NEW DELHI: Christopher Marquis outplayed Prateek Bhambri 6-0, 6-7(1), 6-1 in the boys’ quarterfinals in the DSCL National junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex, here on Thursday.

On a windy morning, the flow was mostly in favour of the talented Marquis, a trainee of the Mahesh Bhupathi Academy, as he served and stroked with considerable punch.

The 17-year-old Marquis failed to handle the tie-break in the second set with matching competence though he had done well to break back in the sixth game earlier after being down 1-3. It was to the credit of Prateek that he was able to stay on par after a poor fare in the first set.

However, instead of sustaining the momentum, Prateek made a meek surrender in the decider as he was broken in the first, fifth and seventh games.

The third-seeded Marquis will challenge second seed Abhijeet Tiwari in the semifinals. After a slow start, Tiwari was able to handle the challenge from Irfan Hussain with ease.

The other semifinal will feature top seed Chandril Sood against the crafty Ronit Bisht. Qualifier Ronit proved too good for Mohit Mayur with his consistent and compact game.

Mayur lacked the discipline to stay patient against the probing game of his opponent and swung wildly in losing his way pretty early in the match.

In the girls’ section, Nimisha Mohan put out third seed Ankita Raina in three sets to set up a semifinal date with second seed Rishika Sunkara.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Sweta Kumari Solanki and the left-handed fifth seed Soniya Dayal.

The results: U-18: Boys: Quarterfinals: Chandril Sood bt Nihal Kapoor 6-2, 6-3; Ronit Bisht bt Mohit Mayur 6-1, 6-4; Chrisopher Marquis bt Prateek Bhambri 6-0, 6-7(1), 6-1; Abhijeet Tiwari bt Irfan Hussain 7-6(3), 6-1.

Doubles: Final: Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt Mansingh Athare & Christopher Marquis 7-5, 6-3.

U-18: Girls: Quarterfinals: Sweta Kumari Solanki bt Prerna Bhambri 7-5, 6-2; Soniya Dayal bt Sharmada Balu 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; Nimisha Mohan bt Ankita Raina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Rishika Sunkara bt Garima Vatwani 6-1, 6-3.

Pre-quarterfinals: Sweta Kumari Solanki bt Anushka Bhargava 6-1, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri bt Tarrannum Handa 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Sharmada Balu bt B. Sowjanya 6-3, 6-3; Soniya Dayal bt Arantxa Andrady 6-3, 7-6(4); Nimisha Mohan bt Shweta Chandra Rana 6-2, 6-0; Ankita Raina bt Sayali Bhilare 6-4, 6-1; Garima Vatwani bt Ravnoor Kaur 6-2, 6-3; Rishika Sunkara bt Vania Dangwal 6-2, 6-1.

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