The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Double for Akash

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Friday, Apr 22, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Double for Akash

Sports Reporter

Bangalore: Akash Wagh was in a hurry. The Maharashtrian lad had a flight to catch and the top-seed blew aside local lad Preetham Roy Morris' challenge with a 6-1, 6-1 victory in the boys' under-16 final of the AITA Talent Series tennis tournament that concluded at the Indian Gymkhana Courts here on Thursday.

Akash, who had earlier teamed up with Varun, clinched the doubles title too, beating Preetham Roy-Sujith Sachidanand 7-5, 6-4.

The under-16 final was a lopsided affair as Akash undid Preetham with deep serves and deft passing shots. Preetham, the fifth seed, did have his moments in the second set as he held onto the baseline and slugged it out with a tiring Akash.

However, the left-handed Akash soon surged back with a serve and volley game while Preetham found his feeble groundstrokes hitting the net too often.

Preetham failed to change his approach throughout the final while Akash did everything from the double fisted forehand to a stealthy drop shot to unnerve his clueless rival.

In the girls' under-16 event, qualifier A. Ruchika from Sri Lanka came back to defeat second-seeded Sharmada Balu of Karnataka 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

In the under-14 section, the hosts held sway as Rashein Samuel and Namisha Mohan won the boys and girls titles respectively.

The results (all finals):

Boys: Under-16: Akash Wagh (Mah) bt Preetham Roy Morris (Kar) 6-1, 6-1. Doubles: Akash Wagh/Varun (TN) bt Preetham Roy Morris/Sujith Sachidanand (Kar) 7-5, 6-4.

Under-14: Rashein Samuel (Kar) bt Keneth Mirajkar (Kar) 6-4, 6-4. Doubles: Bhargav/Kaushik (AP) bt Vinod Gowda/Prajwal (Kar) 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4. Girls: Under-16: A. Ruchika (SL) bt Sharmada Balu (Kar) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. Under-14: Namisha Mohan (Kar) bt Rachita Sarda (Kar) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Doubles: Rachita/Namisha (Kar) bt Divya Rana (AP)/Karamjith Kaur (Kar) 6-3, 6-4.

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