Lata breaks the jinx

PUNE, May 27: The bad patch in Lata Asudani's career became a distant memory today. The Nagpur lass put back two defeats in previous enco...

PUNE, May 27: The bad patch in Lata Asudani8217;s career became a distant memory today. The Nagpur lass put back two defeats in previous encounters while getting the better of Deepa Chakravarthy Gujarat who had stopped her in the semi-finals in the first leg of Adidas National junior ranking tennis at Mumbai last week. But, today it was Lata8217;s turn in the second leg.

The second seed, Lata ruled the PYC Gymkhana club court with an impressive 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Deepa, booking her berth in the final of the under-14 section. But her job is yet not finished. The real test will be tomorrow when she takes on the top seed Isha Lakhani of Mumbai in the final.

Tiny Isha too had to struggle to keep her ranking intact. Pitted against fourth seed Krushmi Chedda of Mumbai, Isha, did well in the first set to win 6-2. However, the top seed lost her concentration in the next and could not recover once being down 2-4 to surrender the second set 4-6. But the surprise challenge put up by Krushmi shrugged off quickly in the decider as she could not hold service, losing 6-1.

Meanwhile, in the State Ranking championship top seeded Radhika Tulpule will play second seed Sonal Phadke of Mumbai in the under-18 final. Radhika, defeated her citymate Radhika Mandke 6-1, 6-2 in the semi-final, while Sonal subdued the challenge of unseeded Redhina Parekh 7-5, 6-0.

Results Prefix numbers denote seedings
Adidas Jr Ranking
Girls
U-14 Semi-final: 1. Isha Lakhani Mah bt 4. Krushmi Chedda Mah 6-2, 4-6, 6-1; 2. Lata Asudani Mah bt 3. Deepa Chakravarthy W Bengal 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
U-16 Quarter-finals: 1. Megha Vakharia Mah bt 7. Medhini Sharma Mah 6-1, 6-4; 3. Ridhina Porekh W Bengal bt 8. Noopur Desai Mah 6-3, 7-5; 4. Ragini Vimal W Bengal bt 5. Lata Asudani Mah 6-3, 6-4; 2. Isha Lakhani Mah bt Deepa Chakravarthy Guj 7-5, 6-1.

Boys
U-14 Semi-finals: 1. Vikrant Sane Mah bt 7. Rishi Behl Mah 6-1, 6-1.
U-16 Semi-final: 1. Rohan Gajjar Mah bt 4. Gavryl Fernandes Mah 7-5, 6-2.

State Ranking
Boys
U-18 Quarter-final: 1. Kedar Shah Pune bt 4. Aniket Joglekar Pune 6-0, 6-1; 2. Abhishek Tamhane Pune bt 5. Varun Magikar Pune 6-3, 6-3; 7. Vivek Jhaveri Mumbai bt Farhad Ganjawala Mumbai 6-4, 6-2; Joushua Fanseea Mumbai bt Shashank Kulkarni Pune 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
U-12 Semi-final: 1. Keshavan Narsimhan Mumbai bt Anmol Arora Mumbai 6-2, 6-0; 3. Hrishikesh Pataskar Pune bt Bhavik Selarkar Mumbai 6-2, 6-2.
U-10 Semi-final: 1. Arnav Jain Mumbai bt 3. Akash Gujrathi Pune 9-1; 2. Tejas Chaukulkar Pune bt Jairaj Desai Mumbai 9-1.

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Girls
U-18 Semi-final: 2. Sonal Phadke Mumbai bt Redhima Parekh Mumbai 7-5, 6-0; 1. Radhika Tulpule Pune bt 3. Radhika Mandke 6-1, 6-2.
U-12 Semi-final: Sagarika Phadke bt 4. Divya Gopal 9-6, 1. Kartiki Bhatt bt 3. Moneeza Siddiqui 9-1.