Gautam continues dream run

PUNE, May 5: Giant Killer Gautam Padmanabhan of Pune continued his dream run in the Hero Honda State Ranking tennis tournament when he score...

PUNE, May 5: Giant Killer Gautam Padmanabhan of Pune continued his dream run in the Hero Honda State Ranking tennis tournament when he scored another exiting win to enter the under-18 boys quarter-final round at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana courts, here today. While on the other hand, Pune8217;s Alok Bhide and Mumbai8217;s Keyur Gupta maintained the tempo of the upsets win on the second day of the tournament, when they showed the door to two seeded player in their respective age categories.

Unseeded Alok Bhide knocked out his citymate and sixth seed Sangram Chaphekar 9-8 9-7 in a close contest to advance to the last eight round in the boys under-18 event.

Chaphekar made a valiant attempt to level scores after being 1-5 down and then both players managed to successfully hold their serve till 8-8.However, in the tie-break Bhide hit some adventurous forehands strokes, which found no answer from Chaphekar.

Gautam Padmanabhan, another unseeded player from the city, who had started his campaign with a bright note when he had defeated the second seed Zubin Shetty of Mumbai in the first round of the tournament, continued his superb form, accounting for Abhishek Tamhane also of Pune 9-8 7-4. Padmanabhan attacked the net at every opportunity and volleyed his way to enter the quarter-finals.

In the boys under-10 section, tiny Keyor Gupta of Mumbai upset the fifth seed Marlon Coetho of Mumbai 8-6.

In the girls main draw which began today, Diane Appohangye of Mumbai gave a tough fight before going down to Ronak Shah of Pune 5-7 into girls under-14 event.

All the other players had an easy win in the event.

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RESULTS
Boys under-10 Pre-quarter: Arnav Jain Mum bt Mihir Dalvi Mum 8-1; Keyur Gupta Mum bt Morton Ceolho Mum 8-6; Shantanu Sahay Mum bt Tejasvi Rao Mum 8-7 8-6; Gaurav Agarwal Mum bt Tejas Chaukulkar Pune 8-5; Bhushan Sardesai Sangli bt Gaurav Ganpule Pune 8-6; Kalyan Sudarshan Pune bt Kowtha Anirudha Mum 8-1; Ankush Bhargava Mum bt Yashodatta Deshpande 8-2; Agnel Gladwin Mum bt Pranav Gokhale Mum 8-5.

Boys Under-14 Pre-Quarter finals: Ankit Doshi Mum bt Rohan Apte Pune 9-2; Shashnak Kulkarni Pune bt Arjun Vaidya Pune 9-4; Rishi Bhel Mum bt Shriwardhan Vaidya Pune 9-4; Sourabh Kohli Mum bt Ashwir Khurana Mum 9-2; Krishna Tanna Mum bt Anirudha Kulkarni Pune 9-3; Dhanajay Kawde Pune bt Kshitij Gujrathi Pune 9-3; Jyotindra Kanekar Pune bt Siddharth Patil Pune 9-4; Vikrant Sane Pune bt Shyam Pednekar Pune 9-5.

Under-18 pre-Q/F: Akshay Jagdale Pune bt Hrishikesh Mone Pune 9-0, Abhijit Muzumdar Mum bt Rohan Dalvi Pune 9-1, Kedar Tembe Pune bt Gaurav Kamar Mum 9-1, Alok Bhide Pune bt Sangram Chaphekar Pune 9-8 9-7, Dipesh Rao Mum bt Jai Arora 9-3, Gautam Padmanabhan Pune bt Abhishek Tamhane 9-8 7-4, Kedar Shah Pune bt Niklul Saren 9-1.

Girls Under-12 1st round: Johan Fernandes Mum bt Mrundalini Joshi Pune 7-0, Kowtha Soumya Mum bt Sheetal Gupta 7-1, Kartiki Bhat Pune bt Ridhima Raina Mum 7-0, Tulsi Mehta Mum bt Janaki Shewale 7-1, Ashlesha Lokhande Pune bt Sunaina Sethi Aurangabad 7-4, Ronak Shah Pune bt Diane Appuchamyge Mum 7-5, Nancy Tharna Mum bt Preeti Bhatia Pune 7-3, Neha Sane Pune bt Ketaki Modak Pune 7-4, Shradha Lodha Pune bt Priya Pachkawde Mum 7-0, Ashwini Borhade Nasik bt Mithika Gokhale Pune 7-3, Noopur Desai Pune bt Kalyani Thowar Pune 7-1.

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Under-14 1st Round: Ronak Shah bt Diane Appachangye 7-5, Nancy Zharna bt Priti Bhatia 7-3, Neha Sane bt Ketaki Modak 7-4, Ashwini Borhade bt Mithila Boarhade 7-3, Ashlesha Lokhande bt Scinayna Sethi 7-4.

Under-16 1st round: Shweta Bakre bt Richima Raina 7-3, Dian Appuhamyge bt Payal Sharma 7-4, Kalpita Raje bt Sunaya Sethi 7-4.