Harsimran Kaur downs Samrita

CHANDIGARH, Aug 3: Chandigarh girl Harsimran Kaur moved into the qaurter finals of the IOB-MCC National Junior Under 18 Hard Court tenn...

CHANDIGARH, Aug 3: Chandigarh girl Harsimran Kaur moved into the qaurter finals of the IOB-MCC National Junior Under 18 Hard Court tennis tournament, being played at Chennai today. According to reports reaching here, Harsimran beat Tamil Nadu8217;s Samrita Sekar in three tough sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the singles pre-qaurterfinal match. It was a pitched battle which could have gone either way, but Harsimran scraped through in the end.

On the other hand, Chandigarh lad Saurab Singh suffered a reverse, going down to A Vel Murugan of Tamil Nadu without putting up any resistance in the boys singles first round match. Saurab lost 6-3, 6-4.

She started well, winning the first set, but Sekar rallied brilliantly and left Harsimran clueless in the second. Sekar took the set at 6-1 from Harsimran.

However, Harsimran held her nerve and wrapped up the last set 6-3. Elsewhere, the diminutive 15-year-old Nandita Chandrasekar Tamil Nadu captured the hearts with her pleasing strokes and unruffled temperament, outplaying Karnataka8217;s top seed Gautam Sheetal 6-4, 6-3.

Qualifier Khushchehr Italia of US, who has come to Chennai on a holiday, showed scant respect to third seed Radhika Mandke Maharashtra. Italia, who is ranked in the 1008217;s in the US juniors, prevailed 7-5, 7-5.

Results : Girls PQF: Harsimran Kaur Chandigarh bt Samrita Sekar TN 6-4, 1-6, 6-4; Nandita Chandrasekar TN bt 1-Gautam Sheetal Karnataka 6-4, 6-3; Shereen Yusuf Karnataka bt Nivedita Venkatesh 6-3, 7-6 7; 7-Sandhya Kanury TN bt Isha Chopra Haryana 6-3, 6-1; 5-Geeta Manohar AP bt Radha Devendrappa Karnataka 6-1, 6-3; Khushchehr Italia US bt 3-Radhika Mandke Maharashtra 7-5, 7-5; 6-T Yamini TN bt Shalini Reddy TN 7-5, 5-7, 6-4; 2-Radhika Tulpule Maharashtra bt Sai Rajalakshmi TN 6-0, 6-0.

Boys 1st Round: A Vel Murugan TN bt Saurab Singh Chandigarh 6-3, 6-4; R Arun Prakash TN bt Nipin Gupta Dli 6-4, 6-0; Vimal Keerthi TN bt Saif Ali WB 6-4, 6-0; Siddarth Sudhakar bt Parthasarathy Bhattacharya Dli 6-0, 7-5; AR Anand Kumar AP bt Alok Bhide Mah 6-0, 7-5; 8-Ravi Kiran Bhat Karnataka bt Abhijit Mazumdar Maharashtra 6-0, 6-0; K Arvind Prakash TN bt Abedin Sham Mah 4-6, 7-6 6, 6-1.