The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : India finishes third; U.S. wins

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India finishes third; U.S. wins

BANGALORE: India finished a creditable third by beating Canada 2-1 in the play-off for the third spot in the ITF World junior (under-14) tennis finals, which concluded at Prostejov, Czech Republic, on Saturday.

Earlier, the United States emerged as champion, beating France 3-0 in the final. It was a historic double for U.S, which also won the girls’ title, beating Great Britain 2-1 in a hardfought final.

It was the best-ever finish by an Indian tennis team in a junior event final, which bettered the fifth place performance of the Indian girls team spearheaded by Sania Mirza in the Junior Fed Cup finals in 2002.

Digvijay Singh Mehta played brilliantly to open the account for India with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1 victory over Filip Peuwo. In the second set, Digvijay trailed 1-4 before fighting back to level it at 4-all. But the Canadian again broke Digvijay and won the set 6-4. Digvijay, playing aggressively, wrapped up the decider quickly. India No. 1 Ronit Bisht sealed the issue for India with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Canadian No. 1 Edward Nguyen.

Ronit trailed 3-5 in the first set, before rallying to win on a tie-breaker. In the second set, both went with serves till 4-all, before Ronit cracked his rival in the ninth and served out for the match.

With India having won both the singles, doubles was rendered a dead rubber and the Indian pair of Ronit Bisht and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost 2-6, 4-6.

The results:

Boys: Final: USA beat France 3-0 (Alexis Halebian bt Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 6-4; Christian Harrison bt Lucas Pouille 6-2, 6-4; Tyler Gardiner & Christian Harrson bt Mathias Bourgue 6-1, 6-3).

For third place: India beat Canada 2-1 (Digvijaysingh Mehta bt Filip Peuwo 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1; Ronit Bisht bt Edward Nguyen 7-6(5), 6-4; Ronit Bisht & Ramkumar Ramanathan lost to Edward Nguyen & Samuel Monnette 2-6, 4-6).

Girls: Final: USA beat Great Britain 2-1 (Kyle McPhillips bt Joanna Henderson 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; Grace Min lost to Laura Robson 1-6, 1-6 ; Kyle McPhillips & Grace Min bt Joanna Henderson & Laura Robson 4-6, 5-2, 6-4).

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