The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ashwin meets Gide

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Friday, Sep 16, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Ashwin meets Gide

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: Ashwin Vijayaraghavan entered his maiden final with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over G.P. Prajnesh in the PNB-Triangle Tennis Trust ITF junior under-18 championship at the TTT courts here on Thursday.

Pocketing the first set relatively easily, Ashwin raced away to a 5-0 lead in the second. Prajnesh roared back when Ashwin served for the match. Prajnesh made Ashwin to sweat for every point. Prajnesh won the remaining seven games on the trot, breaking Ashwin's serve in the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th games to win the second set 7-5.

Even as the left-hander Prajnesh kept retrieving, Ashwin didn't put as much effort in his shots. Instead he chose to place his into vacant positions, making Prajnesh run from corner to corner. Soon, Ashwin took a 4-2 lead in the decider and unforced errors began to cost Prajnesh. A long forehand ensured Ashwin reach his first final of an ITF tournament.

Facing Ashwin on Saturday will be Rohan Gide, the second seed. The Maharashtra lad has looked solid from the baseline so far in the championship, his serves and groundstrokes being the strong points. Gide put it across his mate Allan Gomes of the Pune Youngsters CC 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 10 minutes for his third ITF final.

Vandana Murali, the third seed, handled Sandri Gangothri with a fair measure of comfort to script a 6-3, 6-1 win and make it to the summit clash. Vandana will meet V. Poojashree, who defeated E. Ashmitha 6-4, 7-5, in the final.

The results (semifinals):

Boys: Singles: Rohan Gide bt Allan Gomes 6-4, 7-5; Ashwin Vijayaraghavan bt G.P. Prajnesh 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Doubles: Gursher Harika & Anshuman Dutta bt Sriram Balaji & Navaneetha Kannan 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-1; Gilbert Tze Chun Wong & Ryan Cheung (HK) bt Agnel Peter Gladwin & Allan Gomes 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Girls: Singles: V. Poojashree bt E. Ashmitha 6-4, 7-5; Vandana Murali bt Sandri Gangothri 6-3, 6-1. Doubles: Sandri Gangothri & Vandana Murali bt Akshita Raj & Parija Maloo 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; Gayatri Krishnan & V. Poojashree bt G.K. Shweta & E. Ashmitha 6-1,6-2.

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