The Hindu : Sport : Yuki leads a young brigade charge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Sport

Yuki leads a young brigade charge

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: It was youth power at its positive best, as Yuki Bhambri led a young brigade into the men’s semifinals of the DSCL National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

While the 15-year-old Yuki played a solid game to pin down the fourth seed, Vivek Shokeen, by saving a set point from 3-5 for a straight-forward finish, Navdeep Singh knocked out the No.1 seed Aditya Madkekar for the loss of four games and the 17-year-old Prajnesh Gunneswaran humbled former National champion Vinod Sridhar.

Ashutosh advances

The second-seeded Ashutosh Singh stayed afloat to lend a semblance of balance to the draw as he got past another former National champion Vijay Kannan. Vijay had to retire at 3-5 as he was suffering from a viral infection.

The 21-year-old Navdeep, seeded eighth, may have done the best job of the day, or for that matter, Prajnesh who rode on his superb game to tame the crafty Vinod in a battle of left-handers, but the focus of attention of the capacity crowd was on Yuki.

The wiry young lad showed remarkable clarity and freshness of approach in tackling a powerful player with equanimity. Yuki drove to a smooth finish after turning the match on its head with a courageous spell.

Class act

Prajnesh was a class act as he matched Vinod stroke for stroke. He stepped up his game in the 11th game by breaking Vinod and served out the first set with assurance. Vinod did not have the stomach for any further fight.

In the women’s section, Isha Lakhani will be challenged by Sanaa Bhambri in the semifinal, while Sonal Phadke downed Rashmi Teltumbe in three sets to set up the other last four clash with second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi.

. The results (quarterfinals):Men: Navdeep Singh bt Aditya Madkekar 6-4, 6-0; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Vinod Sridhar 7-5, 6-1; Yuki Bhambri bt Vivek Shokeen 7-5, 6-3; Ashutosh Singh bt Vijay Kannan 5-3 (retd.)

Women: Isha Lakhani bt Ashvarya Shrivastava 6-4, 6-3; Sanaa Bhambri bt Asha Nandakumar 6-0, 6-2; Sonal Phadke bt Rashmi Teltumbe 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Parul Goswami 6-0, 7-5.

Boys (U-18): Vijayant Malik bt Shantanu Rajput 6-0, 6-1; Ronak Manuja bt Sudanwa Sitaram 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Abhijeet Tiwari bt Christopher Marquis 6-3, 7-6(2); Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt B. Vikram Reddy 6-0, 3-0 (retd.)

Girls (U-18): Ashvarya Shrivastava bt Kyra Shroff 6-7(6), 6-1, 7-5; Kelsey Sundaram bt Sharmada Balu 6-2, 6-3; Rashmi Teltumbe bt Vishaka Sheoran 7-5, 6-2; Tanvi Shah bt Sweta Kumari Solanki 6-4, 7-5.

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