The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Janaki overwhelms Supriya

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Janaki overwhelms Supriya

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 13. Hyderabad girl G. S. Janaki Rao overwhelmed the top-seeded Supriya Mallaya of Maharashtra 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the DSCL National mini-junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

It has been a dream run for the eighth standard student of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, as Janaki has dropped only 11 games in winning three rounds. She had lost to Supriya four times in recent months, but played well to set up a semifinal against Shahin Ansari of Tamil Nadu.

Shahin had to ward off a stiff challenge from wild card Kelsey Sundaram. In the other half, Daniella Jones regained confidence after squandering a matchpoint at 5-1 in the second set, to eventually beat the fourth-seeded Prerna Mythry in three sets. She will challenge Poojashree Venkatesh in the next round.

In the boys' event, Karun Uday Singh overpowered the fifth-seeded Yuki Bhambri for a semifinal berth. Karun played a positive game throughout, though he tended to over-hit at times, and handled the climax like a champion. Karun led 5-2 in the decider, but Yuki clawed his way back to be on par. It was here that Karun stepped up his game, serving big and putting away the winners, to clinch the contest.

It was a sweet victory for Karun as he had lost thrice in a row to Yuki. The latter walked back to his chair, at the back of the court, without going through the customary hand-shake with the opponent and the chair-umpire at the end of the long-drawn encounter, but Karun made it a point to walk up to his rival to shake hands, a nice sporting gesture.

Karun will meet the top-seeded Vinay Kamineni in the next round. The other semifinal will feature Vijayant Malik of Chandigarh against the second-seeded Sriram Balaji of Tamil Nadu. Malik was through after it was one set apiece as his opponent Akash Wagh retired with a twisted ankle.

The results (quarterfinals): Boys under-14: Vinay Kamineni bt Rubal Shandilya 6-4, 6-2; Karun Uday Singh bt Yuki Bhambri 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; Vijayant Malik bt Akash Wagh 1-6, 6-2 (conceded); Sriram Balaji bt Vikram Reddy 6-1, 6-3.

Girls under-14: G. S. Janaki Rao bt Supriya Mallaya 6-0, 6-3; Shahin Ansari bt Kelsey Sundaram 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-1; Daniella Jones bt Prerna Mythry 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Sweta Kumari Solanki 6-2, 6-2.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport