Vinod Gowda and Bhuvana Kalva won the boy’s and girl’s categories respectively in the Walchand Cup national level tennis tournament held at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts on Saturday.
Bangalore lad Gowda,seeded second in the tournament,defeated top seed Arjun Kadhe of Pune in straight sets. Gowda,who is from the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy,won the first set with ease and was forced into a tiebreak before wrapping the game up.
Kadhe,the favourite to win the tournament,started with a double fault and could not hold his first service game. Gowda then broke Kadhe’s serve in the third and fifth game and held the sixth service game to clinch the set 6-0. In the second set,Gowda broke Kadhe’s serve in the third and fifth game to take the lead 4-1.
But Kadhe showed his class and broke Gowda back twice to level things up at 4-4. Both players held their next service games to make it 5-5 and then 6-6. Kadhe faltered in the tiebreak and lost it 7-0.
The girls final saw the second seed defeating the top seed. Bhuvana Kalva of Andhra Pradesh made short work of Amrita Mukherjee of West Bengal. Kalva,also a product of the Mahesh Bhupati Academy,broke Amrita’s serve in the third and seventh game and held her tenth service game to take the set 6-4. The second set saw Mukherjee offering some resistance but she lost 7-5.
Boys final:Vinod Gowda (second seed,KAR) bt Arjun Kadhe (first seed,MAH) 6-0,7-6(7-0)
Girls final:Bhuvana Kalva (second seed,AP) bt Amrita Mukherjee (first seed,WB) 6-4,7-5.