The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Vijayant downs Prateek

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Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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Vijayant downs Prateek

Sports Reporter

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

RIGHT ANSWERS: Vijayant Malik was in his element during his quarterfinal victory over Prateek Bhambri.

Chennai: Top seed Vijayant Malik proved to be a steady counter-puncher when faced with some hard-hitting by Prateek Bhambri, in the boys’ under-18 quarterfinals of the adidas-MCC junior national tennis championship, at MCC, on Thursday. Vijayant won 6-4, 6-4.

Barring occasional glitches, he dealt with Prateek’s blows with minimum fuss and showed good retrieving skills to advance to the semifinals.

Vijayant had little trouble coming back from minor deficits in both sets. Forced to take the initiative, Prateek attacked with purpose, but failed to sustain it through the course of both sets. He went for too much during some of the crucial points, failing to exercise more control.

Second seed Abhijeet Tiwari was pushed to a tie-break in the first set by Irfan Hussain, but prevailed 7-6(4), 6-2 in his boys’ under-18 quarterfinal match.

Effective game

Abhijeet was solid and effective without seeming spectacular. Irfan served well in the first set, but it was Abhijeet who raced to a 5-1 lead in the tie-break. Irfan’s passing made it 5-4, but Abhijeet was composed and closed it out with a huge serve. Prerna Bhambri had a tough 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win over Prachi Nadkarni in the girls’ under-18 quarterfinals. The ninth-seeded Prerna lost her composure in the second set, but managed to edge past her opponent in the third.

Top seed Mohit Mayur was ousted by eighth seed Rakshaya K.Thakkar 6-0, 6-4, in the boys’ under-14 quarterfinal.

The results (quarterfinals):

Singles: Boys: Under-18: 4-Sriram Balaji (TN) bt 5-Vishesh Bhatia (Guj) 7-5, 6-1; 1-Vijayant Malik (Chd) bt 16-Prateek Bhambri (Dli) 6-4, 6-4; 2-Abhijeet Tiwari (Chg) bt Irfan Hussain(TN) 7-6(4), 6-2; 3-Ronak Manuja (Mah) bt Harshvardhan Thirani(WB) 5-7, 6-1, 7-5. Under-14: 8-Rakshaya K.Thakkar (Mah) bt 1-Mohit Mayur (TN) 6-0, 6-4; 5-Surya Pavan (AP) bt 12-K. Pradeep Reddy (AP) 6-4, 6-4; 7-R.Ram Kumar (TN) bt 4-Tushal Thawani (Mah) 6-4, 6-2; 2-Ronit Bishit (Dli) bt 6-Digvijay Sing h (HP) 6-2, 6-1

Girls: Under-18: 7-Nandita Krishnan (TN) bt 16-Shahin Ansari (TN) 0-6, 6-3, 6-4; 6-T.Nilaya (AP) bt 4-Kelsey Sundaram (TN) 6-1, 2-6, 6-3; 14-Sonia Dayal (Mah) bt Sharon.S.Paul (TN) 7-6(3) 6-4; 9-Prerna Bhambri (Dli) bt 8-Prachi Nadkarn i (Mah) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. Under-14: 1-Rishika Sunkara (Dli) bt 6-Natalia Khaniejo (Mah) 6-1, 6-3; Sharmada Balu (Kar) bt 14-Vaniya Dangwal (Dli) 3-6, 6-0, 6-1; 8-Bhavana Suresh (AP) bt 3-Prarthana Thumbare (Mah) 4-6,7-6(4) 6-3; 7-Ankita R aina (Guj) bt Natasha Palha (Goa) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles:Boys: Under-18: Sriram Balaji/Vijayant Malik bt Monal Chillar/Prateek Bhambri 6-4, 6-3; Abhijeet Tiwari/Akshay Kohli bt Himanshu Mali/Preetam Moras 6-4, 6-3; Jugal Marfatia/Sumeet Shinde bt Mansingh Athare/Sameer Paranjapee 7-5 , 7-6 (2); Manuja/Vishesh Bhatia bt Nihal Kapoor/Gugan Varma 6-3, 6-3. Under-14: 1.Siddharth Rawat /Rakshaya.K.Thakkar bt Tushal Thawani/Sai Teja 6-0, 6-3; Vinod Gowda/Pradeep Reddy bt Surya Pawan/Surya Sirsala 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5); Roopa m Gagoi/Trinayan Talukdar bt R. Ramkumar/Arjun Kadhe 6-3, 7-5; Ronit Bisht/Digvijay Singh bt Veerabadran/ S. Karan 6-2, 6-7(3) 6-1.

Girls: Under-18: Tanvi Shah/Kelsey Sundaram bt Nimisha Mohan/C.Rajeswari 6-0, 6-1; Grace Hannah/V.Archana bt Dipti Srivatsava/Susita 6-0, 6-0; Gopika Kapoor/Prerna Bhambri bt Preethi Srinivasan/Sindhu Nila 6-1, 7-6 (1).

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