The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ashwin Nambi and Grace Hannah win singles titles

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Sunday, Aug 12, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Ashwin Nambi and Grace Hannah win singles titles

Sports Reporter

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

WINNERS: Ashwin Nambi and Grace Hannah with Mr. R. Srikanth, Managing Director ABI Showa Tech (India) Ltd.

Chennai: Ashwin Nambi survived five match points to prevail over Arul Mozhi Selvan 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(4), in the boys’ under-18 final of the ABI Showa Tech TNTA KTC junior tennis tournament, at KTC, Kottivakkam, on Saturday.

In the girls’ under-18 final, Grace Hannah defeated Shahin Ansari 6-4, 6-4.

The rallies were played at a frenetic pace in the boys’ final, with shots consistently flying out. Arul served erratically throughout the match, especially in the decider.

After clinching the first set, he failed to use the momentum to his advantage upfront in the second, with Ashwin clinching the first few games easily.

Both went for broke in the third set which had its share of unforced errors and blistering passing shots. Ashwin grew in confidence with every match point he saved, and raced ahead in the tie-break.

The girls’ final was a more consistent baseline show, with Grace, a student of St. Joseph’s College, showing better control while closing out sets.

R. Srikanth, Managing Director, ABI Showa Tech, distributed the prizes.

Thushal scores win

Thushal Thawani beat Popy Sirgar 9-6 in the first round of qualifying in the Adidas-MCC National Junior tennis championship in the u-18 category at the MCC on Saturday.

Important results: Qualifying I round: U-18: Kaushik Das (AP) bt Asad Jaffer (KAR) 9-2; Chinmaye Pradhan (ORI) bt Mohd. Yunus (TN) 9-4; K. Pradip Reddy (AP) bt Ankit Chopra (CHD) 9-5; Karam Veer Dhilon (WB) bt Arun Alagappan (TN) 9-8 (4); V. Vignesh (TN ) bt Gatam Pranav Reddy (AP) 9-0. U-14: Sibi Mon (TN) bt Suraj H. (KER) 9-2; Sagar Das (DLI) bt G. Ravishankar (TN) 9-3; Dhanjay Dhruva (TN) bt V. Vishal (TN) 9-3; Ganesh Alagappan (TN) bt g. Anush (AP) 9-8 (3); Sai Nikhil (AP) bt Rahu l Manoj (TN) 9-8 (0); A.K. Parthasarathy (TN) bt M. Shravan (TN) 9-0.