Amanjot overcomes Nikhil, Priyanka moves to quarters

NEW DELHI, October 13: While Sunil Kumar and Akshay Vishal Rao, both of whom train at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association, took the DS...

NEW DELHI, October 13: While Sunil Kumar and Akshay Vishal Rao, both of whom train at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association, took the DSCL Open men’s and under-18 titles last week, this week Amanjot Singh, top seed in the u-16 category and another CLTA protege seems to be well in command of the situation.

Yet, the 15-year-old was a fairly relieved person on Wednesday afternoon, after he got past a tough pre-quarterfinal against Delhi’s Nikhil Vijay Murali 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Amanjot was up 3-0 in the first set before his game went haywire and Nikhil took the next five games in a row. Though Amanjot made it 4-5, the Delhi boy held on for the set.

But after that early scare, Amanjot really didn’t have any problem and cruised through to take the next two sets. Amanjot, who has played this year in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei, will next play unseeded Maharashtra youngster Gavryl Fernandes, who beat Somdev K Dev Varman (TN) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

In the u-16 girls and u-14 boys, things proceeded according to plan, as the top eight seeds all made it to the last eight stage in straight sets. In the u-14 girls, the top seven seeds went through to the quarters, along with Priyanka Parekh of West Bengal, who had upset eighth seed Sharanya Pattabi of Tamil Nadu in the first round on Monday.