The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Abhijit and Kyra emerge champions

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Abhijit and Kyra emerge champions

Sports Reporter

Ronit Bisht and Sharon Paul bag under-14 titles

— Photo: R. Ragu

THE BEST OF THE LOT: (From left) Ronit Bisht, Sharon Paul, Kyra Shroff and Abhijit Tiwari, title winners in their respective categories in the adidas-MCC National junior tennis championship in Chennai on Saturday.

Chennai: Second seed Kyra Shroff of Maharashtra survived an unexpected resurgence by fifth seed Aishwarya Srivatsava to clinch the adidas-MCC National junior tennis championships girls’ under-18 title at the MCC, here on Saturday.

Kyra defeated her Statemate and doubles partner 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Fourth seed Abhijit Tiwari was relentless against sixth seed Khaza Vinayak Sarma, as he eased his way to the boys’ under-18 title with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Top seed Ronit Bisht of Delhi defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan of Tamil Nadu 6-2, 6-0 in the boys’ under-14 final, while Tamil Nadu’s Sharon Paul, seeded sixth, claimed the girls’ under-14 title, prevailing over 14th seed Eetee Mehta of Gujarat 6-2, 6-4.

Kyra and Aishwarya struggled to hold their serves in the first set after the second seed was broken in the first game of the match. Kyra managed the only hold in the first set in the third game.

A break

The second seed worked her opponent around in the second set and managed a break in the fifth game. Despite tiring and requiring treatment in the second set, Aishwarya pushed herself to take advantage of Kyra’s loose shots to break back in the eighth game.

The fifth seed found her strokes coming together in the 10th game that gave her the second set. Kyra took little time to regroup and played some smart shots to go 1-0 up on Aishwarya’s serve in the decider.

The second seed’s defence was sound, and the groundstrokes imposing. Aishwarya struggled in keeping the ball in play as Kyra exploited her opponent’s inconsistency to complete the win.

Abhijit was in complete control through the course of the final, giving Khaza nothing to work with.

The serves were big from the Chhattisgarh player and his strokes had too much power in them for the sixth seed. The fourth seed’s remarkable athleticism was backed by his ability to produce winners.

Khaza, who had played impressively through the course of the tournament, was comprehensively outplayed in the final by the deserving winner.

The results (all finals): Boys: Singles: U-18: Abhijit Tiwari (Chg) bt Khaza Vinayak Sharma (AP) 6-1, 6-1.

U-14: Ronit Bishit (Del) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (TN) 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles: U-18: Viswajit Tirumurthi & Rishab Deb R. Raman bt Abhijit & Nihal Kapoor 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.

U-14: Ramkumar & Arjun Khate bt Neeraj Elangovan & Vinod Gowda 6-3, 6-1.

Girls: Singles: U-18: Kyra Shroff (Mah) bt Aishwarya Srivatsava (Mah) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. U-14: Sharon Paul (TN) bt Eetee Metha (Guj) 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles: U -18: Tanvi Shah & Rashmi Teltumbde bt Kyra & Aishwarya Srivatsava 6-2, 5-7, 10-6.

U-14: Nidhi Chilumula & Anushka Bargava bt Sansita Nandakumar & Vaidehi Bhagwat 6-2, 6-2.

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