The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Siddarth springs a surprise

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Wednesday, Aug 24, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Siddarth springs a surprise

Sports Reporter

GIANT-KILLER: Siddarth Hande's skills were on show in his upset win over Gursher Singh. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI: Siddarth Hande has taken a year's break from studies. Having completed his Std. XII in Biology stream this year, the 17-year-old Chennai lad has decided to focus on tennis for the time being with the approach "let's see how it goes."

In the boys' under-18 second round of the adidas-Madras Cricket Club-AITA National junior tennis championship at the club courts here on Tuesday, Siddarth, unseeded here, convinced himself he's on the right track with a clinical 6-1, 6-1 win over the top-seeded Harika Gursher Singh of Chandigarh. Siddarth will take on Siddharth Alapatti of Andhra Pradesh next.

Meanwhile, in his capacity as the Junior Selection Committee Chairman, 67-year-old Akhtar Ali, former India Davis Cup coach, will pick around eight boys and eight girls (between 14 and 16 years) from the ongoing championship. He will have a camp for the selected players and then chart out a programme for them.

The results: Boys under-18 (second round): Siddarth Hande (TN) bt Harika Gursher Singh (Chd) 6-1, 6-1; Siddarth Alapatti (AP) bt Navinder Pal Singh (Chd) 6-3, 6-2; Prateek Shantha Raju (Kar) bt Kaushik Dass (Asm) 6-3, 6-2; Kaushik Raju (Kar) bt Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (AP) 7-6 (5), 7-5; A.S. Suresh Krishna (AP) bt Sudanwa Sitaram (TN) 6-3, 6-2; Peter Agnel Gladwin (Mah) bt Guhan Verma (TN) 6-1, 6-2; Nikunj Siwach (Goa) bt Rahul Belwal (Del) 6-2, 7-5; Rohan Gide (Mah) bt Sriram Balaji (TN) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Sushant Nambiar (AP) bt V. Sudarsan (TN) 6-3, 6-3.

Boys u-14 (second round): Venkat Iyer bt Shahbaz Khan (Mah) 6-2, 6-1; Chandril Sood (UP) bt Ramkumar (TN) 2-6, 7-5, 6-1; Yuki Bhambri (Del) bt Irfan Hussain (TN) 6-3, 6-4; Sudanwa Sitaram (TN) bt Bibaswan Deb (WB) 6-0, 6-2; M.A. Navin (TN) bt Sameer Paranjpe (Mah) 6-2, 7-5; Guhan Verma (TN) bt Gill Manjit Singh (Chd) 7-5, 6-4; Amogha Prabhakar (Kar) bt A.N. Mudappa (Kar) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0; Ronak Manuja (Mah) bt Advait Kirtane (Guj) 6-1, 6-4; S.V. Abhishek (AP) bt Yash Deshmukh (Mah) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; Suraj Desai (Guj) bt Praveen Ramasamy (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Menta Gopinath (AP) bt Vaidik Munshav (Guj) 7-5, 6-2; Rashien Samuel (Kar) bt Vinodh Gowda (Kar) 7-5, 6-3; Sumit Shinde (Mah) bt Vinayak Sharma Kaza (AP) 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; Jugal Marphatia (Guj) bt M.A.Naveen (TN) 7-5, 6-3; Christopher Marquis (Mah) bt Yeshwanth Nadella (AP) 6-2, 6-0; Shiva Singwan (AP) w/o Bharat Bharadwaj (Del).

Girls under-18 (first round): Madura Ranganathan (TN) bt Unnati Purushotham (AP) 6-3, 6-1; Sampada Kanede (Mah) bt Aarti Duaisamy (TN) 6-3, 6-2; Inayat Khosla (Chd) bt Rohini Doss (WB) 6-2, 7-5; Solanki Kumar Swetha (Del) bt Madnala Niroshita (AP) bt 6-2, 6-4; Varsha Shivashankar (Kar) bt V. Archana (AP) 6-1, 6-4; Asha Nandakumar (Kar) bt Prerna Mythri (AP) 6-4, 7-6 (3); P.V. Rajarajeswari (AP) bt Amritha Seth (Del) 6-0, 6-1; Anushree Thamanna (Kar) bt Neha Rana (Del) 3-6, 6-4 6-3; Janani Suresh (TN) bt Deepnavazi Rani (Mah) 6-2, 6-2; G.K. Swetha (Kar) bt Nandita Krishnan (TN) 6-1, 6-0;Gayarhti Krishnan (TN) bt Shalini Shahoo (Del) 6-2, 6-2; Parija Maloo (Mah) bt Vishaka Sheoran (Del) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2; Aishwarya Srivastava (Mah) bt Grace Hannah (TN) 6-4, 6-4; Bhavani Tirumurthy (TN) bt Y.P. Aishwarya (AP) 6-1, 6-3.

Girls under-14 (first round): Mandava Divija (AP) bt Y.P. Aishwarya (AP) 7-5, 6-4; Nandita Krishnan (TN) bt Sonia Dayal (Mah) 7-6 (6), 7-5; V. Archana (AP) bt C. Rajeswari (TN) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Prarchi Nadkarni (Mah) bt Henna Ahuja (Del) 6-1, 6-3; Rashmi Teltumbe (Mah) bt Nupur Kaur (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; Aishwarya Srivastava (Mah) bt Ankita Raina (Guj) 6-1, 6-1; Mohana Sai Madhuri (AP) bt Yamini Reddy (Kar) 6-4, 6-1; Mokshatha Jain (WB) bt Purhpahasa Reddy (AP) 6-2, 6-3; Gopika Kapoor (Del) bt Tanvi Shah (Mah) 3-6, 6-5, 6-3; Prerna Bhambri (Del) bt Daniella Jones (WB) 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3; Divya Rao (AP) bt Pooja P Patel (Guj) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Aishwarya Agarwal (MP) bt Natalia Khanejo (Mah) 6-2, 6-1.

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