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Double whammy
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The A.P. boys and men's team won the championship with remarkable ease
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BOYS N MEN The AP teams had a smooth sail in the championship PHOTOS: D. GOPALAKRISHNAN
The Andhra Pradesh boys (under-18) and men's teams won the All-India Inter-State Tennis Championship which was held in Gurgaon recently. The boys team comprised P.C. Vignesh, Saket Sai and Suresh Krishna with Ramakrishna as non-playing captain. They picked up the under-18 title defeating Punjab 2-0 in the final. The men's team had in its ranks J. Vishnuvardhan, Yasser Arafat and Polavarapu Pavan with Sagai Raj as non-playing captain and the AP squad, again defeated Punjab 2-0 in the men's final.
What was really remarkable was the ease with which the AP teams triumphed. The boys section saw AP defeat UP by two matches to nil in the semi finals. In the first singles P.C. Vignesh defeated Krishna Karsolia in straight sets and then in the second singles M. Saket Sai got the better of Sumit Prakash Gupta without facing any threat at any stage from the UP player.
That put AP in the final against Punjab. Here for the first time AP came under some pressure as Manav Dhawan of Punjab fought back against Vignesh after losing the first set. But Vignesh pulled out his best and managed to record a win at 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. The second singles saw Saket Sai easily beat Gursher Singh Harika 6-1, 6-2 to clinch the issue.
It is raining gold
For Vignesh it was yet another feather in his cap. He is a former double gold medallist in the National School Games while Saket Sai has won four golds in the National School Games beginning from the year 2002. Earlier he had also won the AITA Super Series in Kolkata and Chandigarh and AITA championship series under 18 singles champ.
In the men's category Andhra Pradesh defeated Tamil Nadu 2-0 in the semi finals. Again the victories were totally one sided and the AP players hardly faced any challenge. J.Vishnu Vardhan defeated Vijay Sunder Prashant of Tamil Nadu 6-2, 6-1 and Polavarapu Pavan got the better of M. Fariz of Tamil Nadu 6-4, 6-3. Thus AP moved into the finals where again its rival was Punjab. Despite the scorching heat and the crowd support for the Haryana players, the AP players managed to emerge with flying colours by recording a comfortable victory. In the first singles J.Vishnu Vardhan (currently ranked 18 in the country), defeated Gursharan Singh 6-4, 6-3 and then Yasser Arafat beat Tushar Sharma 6-3, 6-3. It was an outstanding performance by the AP players who lived up to expectations with a commendable display of grit and determination all the way.
Later during a felicitation function in Hyderabad the SAAP chairman M.S. Raj Thakur promised to see that the players got the financial assistance according to their due, for winning the national titles. He also hoped that they would continue to perform well at higher levels in future. Raja Narasimha Rao, Secretary of the APLTA, said that the Association would also announce cash incentives to further increase the motivation level of these young players.
ABHIJIT SEN GUPTA
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