The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Marfatia beats Vinayak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 12, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Marfatia beats Vinayak

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Jugal Marfatia knocked out top seed Kaza Vinayak Sarma 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the under-16 boys’ section in the DSCL National sub-junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

On a day when two other top seeds, Gopika Kapoor and Rishika Sunkara, were also shown the door, Rohit Bisht, the No.1 seed in the under-14 boys’ section came up with a gutsy performance against giant-killer Saurabh Singh.

The athletic Vinayak Sarma had a strong game as he battled on even terms against the seasoned Marfatia, but an erratic backhand and a relatively timid approach let him down in the climax.

Hard lesson

It was a hard lesson for the top players as they realised that what counted on the court was how they fared at the crunch and that ranking and reputation would be of little help in deciding their matches.

In the girls’ under-16 section, Sharon Paul bounced back after losing the first set in the tie-break to beat Gopika Kapoor.

The results (quarterfinals):

Boys: Under-16: Jugal Marfatia bt Kaza Vinayak Sarma 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3; Shiva Sangwan bt Shantanu Rajput 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4; S. Siddharth bt Irfan Hussain 6-3, 6-2; Prateek Bhambri bt Saurabh Singh 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-1.

Under-14: Rohit Bisht bt Saurabh Singh 6-4, 6-3; Ronit Bisht bt K. Pradeep Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Siddharth Rawat bt Tushal Thawani 6-2, 6-0; Mohit Mayur bt Arjun Kadhe 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.

Girls: Under-16: Sharon Paul bt Gopika Kapoor 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4; Ratnika Batra bt Nimisha Mohan 6-4, 6-1; Ankita Raina bt Arushi Sharma 6-0, 4-6, 6-0; Rishika Sunkara bt Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-1.

Under-14: Ratnika Batra bt Rishika Sunkara 6-0, 6-3; Ankita Raina bt Prarthana Thombre 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Shweta Chandra Rana bt Vaidehi Bhagwat 6-1, 2-6, 6-4; Natasha Palha bt Aishwarya Aggarwal 6-4, 6-1.

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