The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prajnesh upsets top-seeded Rifat

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Friday, Jan 05, 2007
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Prajnesh upsets top-seeded Rifat

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Prajnesh Gunneswaran upset the top-seeded Rifat Biktyakov of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the ITF Grade III junior tennis tournament here on Thursday.

The 17-year-old Prajnesh, who had won his maiden ITF juniors singles title in Gurgaon last month, was in command right through the match.

Coach M. Balu, who has been training Prajnesh for the last three years in Bangalore, said that he was not surprised with the result and expected his ward to go all the way.

"After winning at Gurgaon, Prajnesh has become a different player. He has also been playing some good matches in the men's circuit against players like Vinod Sridhar and Ashutosh Singh. He is improving and he has a lot of maturity in his approach," said coach Balu.

There was another upset, as the 14-year-old wild card Yuki Bhambri showed the second-seeded Ashwin Vijayraghavan the door.

While the Delhi boy Yuki will take on the third-seeded Alexey Tikhonov of Russia in the semifinals, the eighth-seeded Prajnesh will play the fourth-seeded local lad Vijayant Malik.

In the girls' section, Poojashree Venkatesh emerged the lone Indian to figure in the semifinals.

The results (quarterfinals): Boys: Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Rifat Biktyakov (Uzb) 6-2, 6-3; Vijayant Malik bt Akash Gujarati 6-1, 6-1; Alexey Tikhonov (Rus) bt Jerzy Janowicz (Pol) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; Yuki Bhambri bt Ashwin Vijayraghavan 6-3, 6-4.

Girls: Alexandra Kolesnichenkov (Uzb) bt Bhavani Trimurti 6-4, 6-0; Yana Kireeva (Rus) bt Beatrice Gumulya (Ina) 4-6, 7-6(0), 6-0; Jessy Romphies (Ina) bt Nigoro Sirojiddinova (Uzb) 6-1, 6-1; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Adnya Naik 6-2, 6-1.

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