Gajjar gobbles Bhide

MUMBAI, May 20: Rohan Gajjar toppled the fourth seed in the under-16 pre-quarterfinals of the SK Pandit Memorial Adidas AITA Junior tennis t...

MUMBAI, May 20: Rohan Gajjar toppled the fourth seed in the under-16 pre-quarterfinals of the SK Pandit Memorial Adidas AITA Junior tennis tournament.

Gajjar, who entered the under-14 semi-finals as well, stopped Pune8217;s Alok Bhide 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana courts today after he had ended Karan Rastogi8217;s dreams.

Rastogi, who has been selected for the Britania Amritraj Tennis academy in Chennai and fought a four-hour, two match, six-set battle yesterday, lost to Gajjar in the under-14 quarters 2-6, 1-6.

Top seed Karan Doctor, popularly known as quot;Docquot;, scored an effortless 6-1, 6-1 win over Shyam Gala. Doctor, who was a part of the team that finished fourth in the World Youth Cup and spends six months every year playing in the US, was helped by Gala8217;s erring service which led to a series of double faults.

The 16-year-old, who played doubles at the World Youth Cup, trains with Mayur Vasant when in Mumbai and spends a few months at the Gomez Brothers8217; Academy at Florida. With thesponsorship backing of Reliance Industries and Prince, he is waiting to move into the senior circuit quot;very soonquot;.

But till then, the 25th ranked junior in US and fourth ranked under-16 in India is busy collecting valuable points.

The Calcutta based third seed Harshit Sharma, playing his first year in the under-16, moved ahead with a 6-3, 6-1 win over inter-schools champions Akshay Tanna. Sharma, who is here on vacations and hence playing the West Zone, is a semi-finalist at the previous two zonals. With 33 points under his belt, the 15-year-old will play at Ahmedabad before going back home.

RESULTS

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Boys8217; under-16: Karan Doctor Mah bt Shyam Gala Mah 6-1, 6-1; Jai Arora bt Gavryl Fernandes 6-4, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar Mah bt Alok Bhide Mah 6-4, 5-7, 7-5; Vivek Jhaveri Mah bt Mehul Kamdar Mah 7-5, 6-1; Kunal Bhojwani Mah bt Ankit Doshi Mah 6-1, 7-6 7-4; Pratim Parekh Mah bt Devendra Singh Bhusari Guj 6-4, 6-2; Arpan Lakhani Mah bt Amit Karunakaran Mah 6-3, 6-4; Harshit SharmaMah bt Akshay Tanna Mah 6-3, 6-1.

Under-14 quarter-finals: Rohan Gajjar Mah bt Karan Rastogi Mah 6-2, 6-1; Ankit Doshi Mah bt Krishne Tanna Mah 6-4, 6-4; Devendra Singh Bhusari Guj bt Sujay Mahadevan Mah 6-1, 1-6, 6-1; Vikrant Sane Mah bt Amit Karunakaran Mah 6-1, 6-2.

Girls8217; under-16 first round: Radhika Tulpule Mah bt Rekha Natarajan Mah 6-3, 6-3; Rati Kumar Mah bt Sania Mirza AP 6-1, 3-6, 6-1; Lisa Pereira Mah bt Lata Asudani Mah 6-4, 6-0; Anisa Shelar Mah bt Nikhila Palat Mah 7-5, 6-0; Nikita Bharadwaj Mah bt Medini Sharma Mah 6-1, 6-3; Megha Vakharia Mah bt Shweta Bakre Mah 6-0, 6-1; Kalpita Raje Mah bt Jitisha Selarka Mah 6-4, 4-1 conceded; Sonal Phadke Mah bt Isha Lakhani Mah 6-1, 6-3.

Under-14 quarter-finals: Megha Vakharia Mah bt Deepa Chakraborty Mah 6-1, 6-2; Johann Fernandes Mah bt Shraddha Lodha Mah 6-1, 6-1; Lata Asudani Mah bt Medini Sharma Mah 6-2, 6-4; Isha Lakhani Mah bt Noopur Desai Mah 7-5,6-1.