Tulpule emerges supreme

In the 12th game Nida saved two match points to make it 6-6. The issue went into the tie-breaker where Tulpule won 6-3. Nida Waseem, a IXth class student of Convent Jesus and Mary, Karachi, executed her backhand with power. Expressing happiness over winning the first ITF tournament, Tulpule, a trainee of Batra Training Centre under Nandan Bal at Pune, said “after analysing Nida’s game, I found her forehand very strong. So I decided to change my strategy. I starting exploiting Nida’s a comparatively weak forehand. It worked and paved my way to the victory podium.”

In the 113-minute final, Nida made 12 doubles faults, including three in the eighth game of the third set. Tulpule committed three double faults, including two in the seventh game of the second set.

Tembe had to blame himself for his defeat. After taking the first set, he was leading 4-1 in the second set. However he let his opponent off the hook by committing unforced errors.Akshay Vishal Rao and Sunil Kumar claimed the boys doubles title by upsetting topseeded pair of Kedar Shah and Karan Doctor 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Centurion ITF Tennis Circuit here today.

RESULTS (singles, all finals)

Boys: Nomi Qamar (Pak) bt Kedar Tembe (Ind) 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2. Doubles: Akshay Vishal Rao and Sunil Kumar bt Kedar Shah and Karan Doctor 5-7. 6-3, 6-3.

Girls: Radhika Tulpule (Ind) bt Nida Waseem (Pak) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6.

Navarra in final

LUCKNOW: Fourth-seed Mose Navarra of Italy stormed into the final of the $50,000 ATP Tour Challenger, beating Czech Ota Fukarek in straight sets here today.

Navarra, who scored a easy 6-4, 6-3 win at the Gymkhana Club courts here, will take on Thomas Kotela of Finland for the title tomorrow.

Kotela, who ran into form midway through this tournament, rallied to defeat Israel’s Noam Behr 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals.

The unseeded Israeli looked in good form in winning the first set at 7-5. But Kotela roared backto take the next two sets, losing just four games, to move into the final.

In the doubles, the Spanish duo of Juan Carrasco and Jairo Valesco beat the Portugese-Belgian pair of Nuno Marques and Tom Venhoudt 7-5, 6-3 to set up a summit clash with top seeds Marcos Ondruska (S Africa) and Andrew Richardson (Britain), who had reached the final yesterday.

Nuno-Marques were not in their usual fighting form in the semifinal as they had to finish off a thrilling quarterfinal against Czech Republic’s Ota Fukarek and Oscar Ortiz, which was stopped at a crucial stage last evening due to bad light.

They prevailed 5-7, 7-6 (17-15) 7-6, (7-5) after fighting for over one and half hours today which seemed to have drained them totally and they went tamely to Carresco/Velasco.