NEW DELHI: Prajnesh Gunneswaran displayed intensity and sound court craft as he outplayed Sriram Balaji 6-3, 6-0 in the under-16 boys' final of the DSCL National sub-junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

The 15-year-old Prajnesh from Bangalore pulled away from 3-3 in the first set reeling off nine games on the trot.

A jubilant Prajnesh said he wanted to play an attacking game and was happy with the execution, though he conceded that his opponent gave up too early.

Balaji, who had lost the under-14 final in the same tournament last year from a position of strength, had given a good account of himself through the tournament but played much below par when it mattered.

Though seeded only 14th, Prajnesh was easily the best player on view in the age group. He had the right build up as well, as he had done well in the ITF junior tournaments in recent weeks.

In the under-14 section, Yuki Bhambri downed the third seed Mansingh Athare 6-4, 6-3. The strongly-built Athare matched the fourth-seeded Yuki initially, but the latter, a student of Delhi Public School, played a brisk game. Yuki moved well for sound execution of strokes even as he moved his opponent around and into desperate strokeplay.

In the girls' under-14 final, the second-seeded Rashmi Teltumbe came back from being blanked in the first set to record a memorable triumph over Soniya Dayal. With the `no advantage' rule in operation, the players had to win only one point after 40-40 to win the game, and Rashmi was better at converting those chances.

The Chairman and Managing Director of DSCL, Ajay Shriram, presented the trophies.

The results (finals): Boys: Under-16: G.P. Prajnesh bt Sriram Balaji 6-3, 6-0. Under-14: Yuki Bhambri bt Mansingh Athare 6-4, 6-3.

Girls: Under-14: Rashmi Teltumbe bt Soniya Dayal 0-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Veterans doubles: Raveen Choudhary and R. I. Singh bt Sagar Engineer and Sanjiv Manchanda 6-0, 6-3.

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