Chennai: Mohit Mayur unleashed one backhand cross-court ripper after another, to pick up the big points and enter the boys' final of IOB-GNC Asian under-14 tennis series, at the Gandhinagar Club Courts, beating Irfan Hussain 7-6(1), 7-6(7), in the semifinal, on Thursday.

In a fierce two-hour 25-minute battle, Mohit showed better composure and shot selection in polishing off the long points. Two backhand cross-court winners in the first set tie-break helped him leapfrog into a big lead, after which he won the set with ease.

The 14-year old had it tougher in the second set, having to save a set-point, when Irfan was up 7-6 in the tie-break. He pocketed the next three points, with Irfan sending one long, signalling the end of the tight encounter.

Top-seed Jugal Marfatia got off to a shocking start, losing the first set 1-6 to Rishabdev, who played some smart tennis early on. Recovering from a bout of food poisoning, Jugal did well to come back and win the second set, which saw a barrage of breaks from the fifth to the eighth game. He had few troubles in closing it out in the final set.

The girls' semifinal matches were less close, with second seed Aishwarya Agrawal and eighth seed Sharon Paul registering straight-sets wins over Natalia Khanejo and Yamini Reddy, respectively.

The results, semifinals:

Boys: Jugal Marfatia bt Rishabhdev 1-6, 6-4, 6-2; Mohit Mayur bt Irfan Hussain 7-6(1), 7-6(7) .

Girls: Sharon.S.Paul bt Yamini Reddy 6-0, 7-6(4); Aishwarya Agarwal bt Natalia Khanejo 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles, semifinals: Boys: N. Sai Karthik - S. Sidharth bt Tushal Thawani - Aniket Wakankar 6-2, 6-2; Jugal Marfatia - Sumeet Shinde bt Shahbaaz Khan - S.V. Abhishek 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4.

Girls: Shweta Rana - Ankita Raina bt Sowjanya Bavisetti - Tejaswini Surya 6-2, 7-5; Aishwarya Agrawal - Natalia Khanejo bt Nikkie Gargi - Madhuri Patere 6-0, 6-1.

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