Arora shocks Mukundan

CHENNAI, AUG 17: Samrita Sekar (Tamil Nadu) and Jai Arora (Maharashtra) shared the day's spoils in the pre-quarterfinals of the India Pis...

CHENNAI, AUG 17: Samrita Sekar (Tamil Nadu) and Jai Arora (Maharashtra) shared the day’s spoils in the pre-quarterfinals of the India Pistons-KTC AITA Junior Tennis Championship here today.

It was sweet revenge for Samrita over third seed Harsimran Kaur, for the latter had nailed Samrita in a close match in the National juniors recently. However, it was totally a different story today. Samrita raced through the first set without dropping a game. The Chandigarh girl made a match out of it in the second set and made the KTC trainee work hard for victory.

Samrita missed a match point at 5-4, 40-30 to lose her serve. Harsimran’s doggedness let her down as she was broken once again in the 10th game and Samrita ended her agony in the next game to win 6-0, 7-5.

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Third seed Mukundan showed signs of revival after taking the match into the third set against Jai Arora, but the Maharashtra boy’s passing shots found Mukundan’s feet time and again. Poor shot selection also led to Mukundan’s defeat as he lost tamelyin the third. Arora prevailed 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1.

Fourth seed Sunil Kumar and seventh seed Kamala Kannan managed to win the big points when it mattered to pull through.

RESULTS

Boys (PQF): 1-Kedar Tembe (Mah) bt Asutosh Singh (Del) 6-2 6-3; 2-Kedar Shah (Mah) bt AR Anand Kumar 6-2 6-2; Jai Arora (Mah) bt 3-N Mukundan (TN) 7-6 (5) 4-6 6-1; 4-Sunil Kumar (Chandigarh) bt Benjamin Xavier (Mah) 6-3 1-6 6-4; 5-Ravi Kiran Bhat (Kar) bt Siddarth Sudhakar (Kar) 6-2 4-6 6-2; 6-Saif Ali (WB) bt Chatwinder Singh (Chandigarh) 7-5 6-1; 7-Kamala Kannan (TN) bt Mithun Murali (TN) 5-7 6-1 6-4; K Arvind Prakash (TN) bt Nirmit Shetty (Kar) 6-3 6-3.

Girls (PQF): 1-Sandhya Kanury (TN) bt Saranya Pattabi (TN) 6-2 7-5; Samrita Sekar (TN) bt 3-Harsimran Kaur (Chandigarh) 6-0 7-5; 4-Nischella Reddy (AP) bt T Sricharanya (TN) 6-1 7-6 (3); Priyanka Parekh (WB) bt 5-Kameswari Vadalli (AP) 6-4 5-7 6-4; 7-Khushchehr Italia (Mah) bt Alice Joy (TN) 6-2 6-4; 8-Nandita Chandrasekar (TN) bt Nandini Perumal (AP) 6-3 6-2; PreetiRao (TN) bt Sai Rajalakshmi (TN) 6-0 6-3; T Yamini (TN) bt Vishika Chhitri (Del) 6-3 6-0.