CHENNAI, FEB 13: With the sun out in full splendour in the afternoon and the wind troubling the players, the under-16 finals provided little fanfare, turning out to be more a test of nerves and determination. The more determined ones, Anant Sitaram and Megha Vakharia captured the boys and girls titles in the Sumeet AITA Mini Sub-junior tennis championship at the Nungambakkam stadium on Saturday.Top seed Anant Sitaram, a 11th standard of Hyderabad Public School, was not totally happy with his performance but managed to put it across his state-mate and fourth seed AR Anand Kumar 6-4, 6-3 in an error-strewn encounter. ``I was happy to win the match, but it produced a lot of errors from both sides,'' reflected a candid Sitaram. He had a good 1998 winning four tournaments.Megha Vakharia and Isha Lakhani reside in Mumbai, come from the same academy and practice together. They have contested many times before and know their games inside out. So the outcome of an encounter between them depends on who is able toperform better on a given day. Megha, who won the under-14 Nationals in Chennai jumped into a quick 4-0 lead. The maximum Isha could do was to get to 3-5 before losing the set. Isha got a little bit frustrated because of Megha's retrieving ability and committed mistakes. Megha, who was in front throughout the match finished the job in an hour's time and felt relieved owing to the scorching sun. She prevailed 6-3, 6-3.Top seed and local boy Arun Prakash, who trains at the Krishnan Tennis Centre took the under-14 boys title when his opponent Chatwinder Singh, down 0-6, 1-2 was forced to pull out of the match by his father. Sukesh Menon, the organiser, said, ``The boy apologised for the act but his father, who has already been warned for his behaviour in the tournament took his bags off in a huff.''Top-seed Isha Lakhani dismissed of second seed Sania Mirza 6-0, 6-1 in the under-14 girls final.Vikram Aditya Menon and Nivedita Venkatesh won the under-14 mixed doubles defeating Somdev and Saranya Pattabi6-4, 3-6, 7-5.Ketola wins challengerLUCKNOW: Finnish Thomas Ketola outsmarted fourth seed Mose Navarra of Italy 6-3 6-4 to win the men's singles title at the $50,000 ATP challenger.Favourite after top seeds crashed out in early rounds, Ketola seemed to have worked hard on his serves and hit some powerful ground strokes never allowing Navarra to settle.Ketola was excellent in the first set winning it 6-3, but Navarra tried to make a match of the final in the second. His attempts were scuttled when he double faulted on crucial points.For the doubles crown, fourth seeded pair of N Margues and T Vanhoudt shocked the top seeds Marcos Ondruska/A Richardson 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.Margues/Vanhoudt combination displayed aggressive play at the net and after closely losing the second set 5-7, had an easy time winning the decider 6-1.The singles' champion Ketola collected the winners' cheque of $7,200 while the doubles' winners received $3100 dollars.
