After playing hide and seek for many days the sun finally shone,bringing hope to the players who were otherwise tired of playing in the cold weather. However,much to their dismay it failed to lift their sagging fortunes as many of the seeded players tumbled out of the tournament,losing to players ranked much below them in the ITF World Grade 3 World Ranking Junior Tennis Tournament being played at CLTA,Sector 10,on Wednesday. Upsets were registered in the boys as well as girls quarter-final matches. The first high-ranked player to make an exit was Napatsakom Sankaew of Thailand,the top seed,who went down to sixth seed Rishika Sunkara of India 6-3,6-2. Sankaew,the highest ranked player and an ITF ranking of 114,failed to justify her billing as she never managed to set her foot right during the quarter-final match. On the other hand Sunkara,the 17th ranked player,stuck to the basics and grasped the opportunities whenever it knocked her door. Two games down in the first set,Rishika rallied to win five games in a row to make it 5-3 and then secured the set 6-3. Sankaew's chances of making a comeback in the match took a backseat when she made several unforced errors,thereby giving Sunkara a chance to surge ahead and claim the set 6-2. With breaks in the sixth and eighth games,Rishika clinched the final match to cause an upset. Meanwhile,eighth seed Ankita Raina's preparation for the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II competition to be held in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia next month,took a backseat when she lost to second seed Kyra Shroff 5-7,4-6. The young National Grass Court woman champion Ankita failed to get going past the second seeded Indian and lost but not before showing the audience her fighting spirit till the end. While Kyra faces third seed Chinese Zi Yang,giant-killer Rishika Sunkara will meet seventh seed Anastasiya Preno of Turkmenistan in semi-finals on Thursday. Zi Yang thrashed Sowjanya Bavisetti of India 6-2,6-0,while Anastasiya Preno outplayed Vaniya Dangwal of India 6-1,6-2 in quarter-final encounters. In the boys' category,Saurabh Singh of India,the second seed,was the highest seeded player who failed to find a place in the last four. He was shown the door by eighth seed Shahbaaz Khan with a straight set 6-3,6-4 win in a quarter-final fixture. Tall Shahbaaz maintained his authority throughout the match and played some superb shots that had Saurabh gasping for breath. He looked in total control of the game and clichéd both the sets without much trouble. He will now challenge third seed Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash in the semi-final. Mohit,meanwhile,ousted unseeded Rakshay Thakkar in straight sets 6-4,6-3. In the second semi-final,top seeded Sumeet Shinde will meet fourth seeded Sai Kartik Nakireddi. Sumeet overcame a fighting Ronit 7-6 (3),6-4 in the quarter-final match,while Sai snuffed out the foreign challenge by beating Thin Yu Cuang of Taipei in straight sets 6-1,6-4. Results: Boys singles (quarter-finals): Sumeet Shinde (Ind) bt Ronit Bisht (Ind) 7-6 (3) 6-4,Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (Ind) bt Rakshay Thakkar (Ind) 6-4,6-3,Sai Kartik Nakireddi (Ind) bt Ting Yu Chuang (Tpe) 6-1,6-4,Shahbaaz Khan (Ind) bt Saurabh Singh (Ind) 6-3,6-4; Girls (q-finals): Rishika Sunkara (Ind) bt Napatsakom Sankaew (Thailand) 6-3,6-2,Anastasiya Prenko (Tkm) bt Vaniya Dangwal (Ind) 6-1,6-2,Zi Yang (China) bt Sowjanya Bavisetti (Ind) 6-2,6-0,Kyra Shroff (Ind) bt Ankita Raina (Ind) 7-5,6-4. Boys Doubles (Quarterfinals): Ronit Singh Bisht (IND) & Sai Kartik Nakireddi (IND) bt Siu Fai Kelvin Lam (HKG) & Vishwesh Sinha (IND) 6-4,7-5,Kunal Anand (IND) & Saurabh Singh (IND) bt Akhmed Djamal Mukhamed (UZB) & Nishchay Rawal (IND) 6-3,6-1; Arjun Khade (IND) & Digvijay Singh Mehta (IND) bt Shahbaaz Khan (IND) & Sumeet Shinde (IND) 6-2,6-2,Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) & Rishab Dev Raman (IND) bt Pulat Babadjanov (UZB) & Aziz Yuldashey (UZB) 2-6,6-0 {10-6}; Girls: Doubles (quarterfinals): N. Sankaew (THA) & Zi Yang (CHN) bt Aarzoo Malik (IND) & Ekaterina Tour (ISR) 6-4,6-2,Sharmada Balu (IND) & Ankita Raina (IND) bt Tjasa Srimpf (SLO) & Dora Vajdic (CRO) 6-3,6-1,Nova Patel (IND) & Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt Ankita Bhatia (IND) & Smriti Joon (IND) 6-2,6-0,Laura Deigman (GBR) & Rosalie Van Der Hoek (NED) bt Kyra Shroff (IND) & Rashmi Teltumbde (IND) 6-4,0-6 [10-8.
