Doubles crown for Mohanty-Xavier

Bangalore, Jan 1: The second-seeded duo of Benjamin Xavier (Maharashtra) and C Mohanty (Delhi) claimed the under-16 boys' title in the Al...

Bangalore, Jan 1: The second-seeded duo of Benjamin Xavier (Maharashtra) and C Mohanty (Delhi) claimed the under-16 boys’ title in the All-India mini and sub-junior ranking tennis tournament at the WIA courts here on Friday. They defeated third seeded Pratim Parekh of Maharashtra and Harshit Sharma of West Bengal 7-5, 6-4.

The tall Mohanty scored many a winner from the baseline, while Xavier settled for crafty passing shots from the back court. Mohanty and Xavier broke their opponents when the latter served 5-6 to pocket the first set.In the second, they broke Pratim and Harshit in the sixth game and kept the pressure on to clinch the issue.

Local girl Shereen went down fighting 5-7, 4-6 to Isha Lakhani in the U-16 singles semis. The victory was a sweet revenge for Isha who went into the match with a 0-2 record against Shereen having lost in Chennai and Hyderabad.Results

Boys: doubles (Final) U-16: C Mohanty (Del) /Benjamin Xavier (Mah) bt Pratim Parekh (Mah)/ Harshit Sharma (WB) 7-5, 6-4. U-14: R ArunPrakash (TN)/ V Vignesh (Hyd) bt Avinash Reddy (TN)/ Arif Hyder (Hyd) 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2.(Semifinals) Singles U-16: Sunil Kumar (Chd) bt Pratim Parekh (Mah) 6-3, 6-4; P Ravi Krishna (AP) bt Harshit Sharma (WB). U-14: Rohan Gajjar (Mah) bt R Arun Prakash (TN) 6-1, 7-5; Vikrant Sane (Mah) bt Avinash Reddy (AP).

Girls singles (semis) U-16: Isha Lakhani (Mah) bt Shereen Yousuf (Kar) 7-5, 6-4; Nandita Chandrashekar (TN) bt Priyanka Parekh (Mah) 7-5, 7-5. U-14: Sasha Abraham (AP) bt Isha Lakhani (Mah) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Radha Devendrappa (Kar) bt Medini Sharma (Mah) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles U-16: Shereen Yousuf/ Radha Devendrappa (Kar) bt Shalini Reddy (TN)/ Ridhina Parekh (WB) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.