Nandita stuns Sheetal

August 3: Qualifier Khushchehr Italia of US, who has come here on a holiday, showed scant respect to third seed Radhika Mandke Maharasht...

August 3: Qualifier Khushchehr Italia of US, who has come here on a holiday, showed scant respect to third seed Radhika Mandke Maharashtra. The Indian-turned-US citizen8217;s hard-hitting caught Mandke on the wrong foot. Mandke had chances in the second set but didn8217;t convert it.

Italia, who is ranked in the 1008217;s in the US juniors, prevailed 7-5, 7-5. Seeing the opposition, she fancies her chances. And the way seeds are falling, the only thing predictable is unpredictability.

Elsewhere, TN8217;s Samrita Sekar and Harsimran Kaur were involved in a pitched battle. It could have gone either way, but Harsimran scraped through in the end, winning 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

It was another free day for second seed Radhika Tulpule of Maharashtra, who decimated Sai Rajalakshmi 6-0, 6-0.

Sixth seed T Yamini and her teammate Shalini Reddy battled it out for a quarter-final berth. Yamini advanced, taking the match 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

Sandhya Kanury TN, Shereen Yusuf Karnataka and Geeta Manohar completed the quarter-final line-up.

Ravi Kiran Bhat Karnataka, the only boys8217; seed in action today, trounced Abhijit Mazumdar 6-0, 6-0.

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TN boys do well: R Arun Prakash, A Vel Murugan, Vimal Keerthi and K Arvind Prakash TN moved into the pre-quarterfinals. Except for Arvind Prakash, who was stretched, others had a relatively easy time.

RESULTS

Boys 1st round: R Arun Prakash TN bt Nipin Gupta Dli 6-4, 6-0; A Vel Murugan TN bt Saurab Singh Chandigarh 6-3, 6-4; 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 Maharashtra 6-0, 7-5; 8-Ravi Kiran Bhat Karnataka bt Abhijit Mazumdar Maharashtra 6-0, 6-0; K Arvind Prakash TN bt Abedin Sham Maharashtra 4-6, 7-6 6, 6-1.

Girls pre-quarters: Nandita Chandrasekar TN bt 1-Gautam Sheetal Karnataka 6-4, 6-3; Harsimran Kaur Chandigarh bt Samrita Sekar TN 6-4, 1-6, 6-4; 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.