Abdullah, Bhatti win Asian under-14 titles

Shaikh Abdullah and Tahira Bhatti won their maiden international singles titles by emerging champions in the Asian under-14 Tennis Tournament at Kalinga Stadium courts in Bhubaneswar today. Top seed Abdullah was given a good run for his money by second seed Anvit Bendre before the former won the final match 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. A trainee of NVK Tennis Academy, Abdullah gained 300 Asian ranking points for his title triumph, while Pune boy Bendre secured 200 points as runner-up. In the girls’ singles final, unseeded Bhatti stunned second seed P Sri Vaishnavi of Hyderabad with an easy 6-1, 6-4 win. The victory, which made Bhatti richer by 300 points, made everybody sit up and take notice of the girl, whose earlier best achievement was limited to just one AITA Talent Series (the lowest category) title. Currently ranked 78th in the National under-14 circuit, Bhatti played precision tennis to upset the applecard of experienced Vaishnavi, who blamed the hectic schedule for her defeat. Vaishnavi, however, received some consolation by bagging the doubles title with K Bhuvana as her partner. The duo came from behind to edge out Rajbir Kaur and Rimpledeep Kaur 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the summit clash. Bendre too obtained some relief by claiming the doubles crown with TS Jude Raymond. They outplayed BS Rahul and Venkata Ramanan in the final 6-0, 6-4. The doubles title winners secured 200 points each, while the runners-up gained 120 points apiece. Former Davis Cup captain Akhtar Ali graced the closing ceremony as chief guest and gave away the mementos. The absence of foreign players though reduced the importance Asian tournament, yet it helped Indian youngsters earn valuable continental ranking points while playing at home. FINAL STANDINGS (Top 20 with points): Boys singles: 1. Shaikh Abdullah (300 pts), 2. Anvit Bendra (200), 3. TS Jude Raymond (150), 4. K Sai Sandeep (120), 5. Ansu Kumar Bhuyan (90), 6. M Sai Nikhil (80), 7. Nishant Anthony (70), 8. Hardeep Singh Sandhu (60), 9. Aayush Mintri (50), 10. Nikhil Kannan (45), 11. Garvit Batra (40), 12. Dhir Gala (35), 13. Dhruv Goel (30), 14. Aditya Vikram (25), 15. MS Rakshith (20), 16. Shakti Ray (17), 17. Pranav Malhotra (15), 18. Ishaque Eqbal (14), 19. D Suprit (13), 20. Adwitiya Patnaik (12), 21. SD Prajwal (11), 22. Ventak Ramanan (10), 23. Richie Agarwal (9), 24. Avilash Mishra (8), 25. BS Rahul (7), 26. Dheeranisi Singh (6), 27. N Eqbal (5), 28. Aniruddh Yadav (4), 29. N Dawla (3), 30. A Poddar (2), 31. S Sarangi (1), 32. P Dash (0). Girls singles (Points same as boys): 1. Tahira Bhatti, 2. PS Vaishnavi, 3. Mrinalini Alla, 4. Ambika Pande, 5. K Bhuvana, 6. Pooja Kudesia, 7. Shambhavi Dixit, 8. S Amrin, 9. DN Reddy, 10. D Mahitha, 11. B Balakumar, 12. P Singhania, 13. Rajbir Kaur, 14. S Dalal, 15. V Raju, 16. A Sony, 17. Rimpledeep Kaur, 18. K Bharat, 19. S Ashwini, 20. L Saravanan, 21. Ria Bhatia, 22. Avilipsa Rath, 23. Srijita Ghosh, 24. Mitali Padhi, 25. S Varma, 26. Adrita Banerjee, 27. Avipsa Rath, 28. V Reddy, 29. K Chawla, 30. Shiksha Dhawan.