Abdullah replaces Bendre as boys` top seed

Asia No 20 Shaikh Abdullah replaced Anvit Bendre as the top seed for boys’ singles category of the Asian Under-14 Tennis Tournament commencing at the Kalinga Stadium courts in Bhubaneswar tomorrow. An error in the ranking list led to Asia No 21 Bendre getting the top billing in the 32-player draw. But after being alerted about the mistake, the tournament officials quickly revised the draw to make Abdullah the top seed. In the first round encounters, Abdullah will meet qualifier Pranav Malhotra, while Bendre will take on Ishaque Eqbal. Local boy Ansu Kumar Bhuyan has been seeded third and he will face N Anirudh Yadav. The fourth to eighth positions in the seeding list have been allotted to Richie Agarwal, MS Rakshith, Dheeranus Singh, Nishanth Anthony and Hardeep Singh Sindhu respectively. Earlier, M Sai Nikhil, B Supreet, Aditya Vikram and Pranav Malhotra grabbed the four spots reserved for qualifiers by winning their third round matches today. Nikhil beat Maka Krishna 7-5, 6-4, Supreet thrashed Sisir Chilukuri 6-2, 6-2, Vikram trounced BS Rahul 6-2, 6-1 and Malhotra edged out Sai Sundeep 6-4, 7-5. In girls’ singles, Asia No 3 Mrinalini Alla will start as the top seed. She has been given a bye in the first round. Second seed Rimpledeep Kaur will meet Tahira Bhatti in the first round. The third to eighth positions in the seedings have been allotted to Sayesha B Dalal, P Sri Vaishnavi, Vasundhara Raju, Pooja Kudesia, Rajbir Kaur and Kavya Bharat.