30-Mar-2009 225
Four upsets marked the beginning of main draw matches of the Asian under-14 tennis tournament at Kalinga Stadium courts in Bhubaneswar today.
Girls’ second seed Rimpledeep Kaur became the major casualty when she was beaten 6-2, 6-3 in the first round by Tahira Bhatti. K Bhuvana caused the second upset in girls’ singles, getting the better of eighth seed Kavya Bharat 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
In boys’ singles, K Sai Sandeep eliminated fourth seed Richie Agarwal in three sets, while M Sai Nikhil ousted sixth seed Dheeranusi Singh in straight sets.
Other seeded players, including boys’ top seed Shaikh Abdullah, second seed Anvit Bendre posted comfortable wins to advance to the second round. Host Orissa experienced a mixed day with two out of six boys making it to the round of 16.
Third seed Ansu Kumar Bhuyan faced no problem in defeating N Anirudh Yadav. But Shakti Ray faced tough fight against his statemate Purusottam Dash before romping home in three sets.
Adwitiya Pattnaik, another promising Orissa boy, suffered an elbow injury during his match against Nikhil Kannan and lost in straight sets. Avilash Mishra, the fifth local boy fought well against MS Rakshith before losing 4-6, 4-6.
But Pattnaik and Mishra bounced back into the fray by winning their consolation matches against Dheerannus Singh and Snehanshu Sadangi respectively. According to tournament referee Joy Mukherjee, players involved in the consolation round would fight for lower placings (16 to 32nd).
Among four locals girls, Mitali Padhi, Shiksha Dhawan and Avilipsa Rath lost in the first round, while entry was denied to Alisha Samal because she was found under age (below 11 years).
In the consolation round, Padhi was given a bye, while Rath beat statemate Dhawan 7-4.
RESULTS:
BOYS’ SINGLES (1st round): Shaikh Abdullah Shaikh bt Pranav Malhotra 6-2, 6-3: Aditya Vikram bt M Nazim Dawla 6-2, 6-2: Garvit Batra bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-0, 6-3: Nishant Anthony bt BS Rahul 6-1, 6-3: Ansu Kumar Bhuyan bt N Anirudh Yadav 6-1, 6-3: Aayush Mintri bt B Supreeth 6-3, 6-3: TS Jude Raymond bt S Sadangi 6-1, 6-0: MS Rakshith bt Avilash Mishra 6-4, 6-4: M Sai Nikhil bt Dheeranusi Singh 6-2, 6-3: Nikhil Kannan bt Adwitiya Pattnaik 6-2, 6-1: Shakti Ray bt Purusottam Dash 7-6(7-4), 2-6, 6-2: Hardeep Sindhu bt Venkkata Ramanan 6-2, 6-3: K Sai Sandeep bt Richie Agarwal 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(7-5): Dhir Gala bt Nishat Eqbal 6-0, 6-1: Dhuruv Goyal bt Ayush Poddar 6-3, 6-2: Anvint Bendra bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-2, 6-2.
CONSOLATION SINGLES: P Malhotra bt N Dawla 7-1, SDP Dev bt BS Rahul 7-0, B Supreeth bt A Yadav 7-1, A Mishra bt S Sadangi 7-3, A Pattnaik bt D Singh 7-3, R Agarwal bt P Dash 7-3, V Ramanan bt N Eqbal 7-5, I Eqbal bt A Poddar 7-3.
GIRLS’ singles (1st round): Bhavani Balakumar bt Srijita Ghosh 6-2, 6-3: Ashka Soni bt Vasi Hanisha Reddy 6-2, 6-3: K Bhuvana bt Kavya Bharat 6-4, 3-6, 6-1: P Sri Vaishnavi bt Chawla Kajal 6-1, 6-1: Mahitha D Reddy bt Ria Bhatia 6-3, 6-1: Shambavi Dixith bt Adrita Banerjee 6-3, 4-6, 4-0 (conceded): Rajbir Kaur bt Lavanya Saravanan 6-2, 6-2: Prabhuti singhania bt Mitali Padhi 6-0, 6-0: Ambika Pandey bt Ashwini Suresh 6-2, 6-2: Sayesha Dalal bt Abhipsa Rath 7-6(7-5), 6-1: Vasundhar Raju bt Shiksha Dhawan 6-2, 6-0: Sheikh Amreen bt Avilipsa Rath 6-0, 6-2: D Nayanika Reedy bt M Saranya Varma 7-6(7-4), 6-4: Tahira Bhatti bt Rimpledeep Kaur 6-2, 6-3.
CONSOLATION SINGLES: K Bharat bt V Reddy 7-0, R Bhatia bt K Chawla 7-4, L Saravanan bt A Banerjee 7-5, Abhipsa Rath bt A Suresh, Abhilipsa Rath bt S Dhawan 7-4, R Kaur bt MS Varma 7-2.
