Seeds continue to tumble in Asian u-14 meet

Four more seeded players tumbled in the second round as quarterfinalists were identified in the Asian under-14 tennis tournament at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar today. With eight seeded players falling by the way side in two days, eight more remained in the fray for the two singles titles. Ambika Pande caused the biggest upset of the day by eliminating girls’ third seed Sayesha B Dalal 6-2, 6-1. With this comfortable win, Pande set up a quarterfinal clash with Amreen Sheikh, who ousted fifth seed Vasundhara Raju 6-2, 6-3. In the top half of the girls’ draw, seventh seed Rajbir Kaur was shown the exit door by Shambhavi Dixith, who rallied from a set down to script a fighting victory. Top seed Mrinalini Alla, fourth seed P Sri Vaishnavi, sixth seed Pooja Koodesia, unseeded K Bhuvana andd Tahira Bhatti completed the quarterfinal line-up by registering smooth wins in the second round. TS Jude Raymond caused the only upset in boys’ singles second round when he crushed fifth seed MS Rakshith 6-1, 6-3. Seventh seed Nishanth Anthony faced an upset against Garvit Batra but fought back from match point to clinch a hard-earned 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 victory eventually. Raymond and Anthony were joined in the last-eight round by top seed Shaikh Abdullah, local favourite and third seed Ansu Kumar Bhuyan, second seed Anvit Bendre, No 8 Hardeep Singh Sindhu, unseeded M Sai Nikhil and K Sai Sandeep. Nikhil was stretched to the third set by Nikhil Kannan, while other five won comfortably. Results (2nd round): Boys’ singles: Shaikh Abdullah Shaikh bt Aditya Vikram 6-2, 6-3: Nishant Anthony bt Garvit Batra 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5: Ansu Kumar Bhuyan bt Aayush Mintri 6-3, 6-3: TS Jude Raymond bt MS Rakshith 6-1, 6-3: M Sai Nikhil bt Nikhil Kannan 3-6, 6-3, 6-2: K Sai Sandeep bt Shakti Ray 6-0, 6-2: Hardeep Sindhu bt Dhir Gala 6-2, 7-5: Anvint Bendra bt Dhruv Goyal 6-3, 6-3. Girls’ singles: Mrinalini Alla bt Bhavani Balakumar 6-2, 6-3: K Bhuvana bt Ashka Soni 6-0, 6-0: P Sri Vaishnavi bt Mahitha D Reddy 6-2, 6-4: Shambhavi Dixith bt Rajbir Kaur 5-7, 6-2, 6-2: Pooja Kudesia bt Prabhuti Singhania 6-1, 6-3: Ambika Pandey bt Sayesha Dalal 7-2, 6-1: Sheikh Amreen bt Vasundhar Raju 6-2, 6-3: Tahira Bhatti bt D Nayanika Reedy 6-2, 6-4.