Chhallani in line for a double; Padmapriya, Diya in girls final

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11 months ago News Desk

Bengaluru: India’s Aarav Chhallani stayed in line for a double in the KSLTA-Asian Junior (U-14) tournament. At the KSLTA Tennis Stadium courts here on Friday, the 12-year-old outplayed Aarav Mulay 4-1, 5-3 to storm into the singles final.

A little over an hour later, Chhallani and his partner Yash Kumar made the boys doubles final with a hard-fought 5-4 (8-6), 4-2 win over the fourth-seeded pair of Madhav Dadhich and Arjun Manikandan.

Playing his first Asian Tennis Federation event of the year, Chhallani dominated Mulay in the opening set of the semifinal that was played over best-of-three short sets to complete the backlog of matches. It was only in the second set that the youngster from Mumbai faced some resistance. But the left-hander raised his level a notch to subdue Mulay.

In the title clash, Chhallani takes on Arjun Manikandan, who outplayed qualifier Kian Patel 4-2, 4-0 in the other semifinal. In the doubles final, Chhallani and Yash duo will take on Armaan Dua and Arsh Kathuria, who outclassed Monodip Dey and Shahbaaz Singh Sanghera 4-0, 4-0 in the other semifinal.

Like Chhallani, second-seeded Padmapriya Ramesh Kumar and Diya Ravikumar Janaki (in picture above) too kept their double hopes alive in the girls’ section. The two made the singles after scoring contrasting wins, and then made the doubles final with their respective partners.

While Padmapriya accounted for giant-killer Krishika Gautam 6-2, 6-4, Diya overcame fourth-seeded Niesha Enja 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the other singles semis.

Results (Semifinals, prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless mentioned):

Boys: Singles: Arjun Manikandan bt Kian Patel 4-2, 4-0; Aarav Chhallani bt Aarav Mulay 4-1, 5-3.

Doubles: Aarav Chhallani/ Yash Kumar bt 4-Madhav Dadhich/ Arjun Manikandan 5-4 (8-6), 4-2; 3-Armaan Dua/ Arsh Kathuria bt Monodip Dey/ Shahbaaz Singh Sanghera 4-0, 4-0.

Girls: Singles: 2-Padmapriya Ramesh Kumar bt Krishika Gautam 6-2, 6-4; 8-Diya Ravikumar Janaki bt 4-Niesha Enja 2-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Doubles: 3-Ayessha Bagla/ Diya Ravikumar Janaki bt 2-Niesha Enja/ Mithravinda Sathish (US) 4-1, 4-1; 1-Padmapriya Ramesh Kumar/ Jahnavi Tammineedi bt Eshitha Sriyala/ Parinitha K Vattaprambil 1-4, 4-0, 11-9.

– Team Mysoorunews