Vaidya fights back to stun seeded Metha

PUNE, May 25: Unseeded Arjun Vaidya of Pune pulled out the rug from below the feet of sixth seed Jai Metha, coming back from being a set ...

PUNE, May 25: Unseeded Arjun Vaidya of Pune pulled out the rug from below the feet of sixth seed Jai Metha, coming back from being a set down to knock the Mumbai lad out of the under-14 section in the Adidas Junior National ranking tennis tournament at the PYC Gymkhana here today.

Arjun, who lost the first set 5-7, fought his way back into the match winning the second set at 6-3 and later dominated the tired Jai Metha with a 6-0 win in the third. Arjun will now play the quarter-final match against fourth seed Krishna Tanna of Mumbai, who was lucky enough to get away with a close call from unseeded Siddharth Patil of Pune.

Krishna Tanna was made to struggle against his unfancied opponent from the beginning. Both fought for each point before Siddharth took the first set 7-5. Untroubled by the first set loss, Krishna fought back gallantly in the second, and this time it was he who won the set in a similar fashion at 7-5 and the third at 6-2.

However, his run in under-16 section did not turn out to be as happy a one for Krishna, seeded eighth, as he lost to his unseeded citymate Ankit Doshi in another close encounter 7-6 8-6, 6-2.

Adidas Junior Nationals
Boys
U-14 Pre-Quarter-Final: V Sane Mah bt A Kulkarni Mah 6-2, 6-3; S Mahadevan Mah bt N Advani Mah 6-0, 6-1; K Rastogi Mah bt S Bhandari MP 6-1, 6-1; R Bhel Mah bt C Metha Mah 5-7, 6-3, 6-0; K Tanna Mah bt S Patil Mah 5-7, 7-5, 6-2; K Narsimhan Mah bt H Pataskar Mah 6-3, 6-3; S Kohli Mah bt A Madhkekar Mah 2-6, 6-4, 6-2; A Vaidya Mah bt J Metha Mah 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.
U-16 pre-quarter-finals: R Gajjar Mah bt R Bhel Mah 6-1, 6-2; V Sane Mah bt B Desai Guj 6-1, 6-3; G Fernandes Mah bt D Kawde Mah 7-6 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; S Kohli Mah bt I Allana Mah 6-2, 6-1; S Kulkarni Mah bt J Kanekar Mah 6-4, 6-1; V Jhaveri Mah bt J Mehta Mah 6-0, 6-3; A Kulkarni Mah bt D Desai Guj 7-5, 6-4; A Doshi bt K Tanna Mah 7-6 8-6, 6-2.

Girls
U-14 Pre-Q/F: I Lakhani Mah bt D Ganjawale Mah 6-0, 6-0; K Chedda Mah bt L Perreira Mah 6-2, 6-1; R Raina Mah bt S Phadke Mah 6-1, 6-1; D Chakravarthy bt S Sanap Mah 6-2, 6-4.
U-16 Ist Round: P Pachkawade Mah bt J Chitnis Mah 9-6, M Vakharia Mah bt R Shah Mah 9-4, M Sharma bt A Lokhande Mah 9-5; R Raina Mah bt N Shah 9-3; K Chedda Mah bt S Sanap Mah 9-1; N Desai Mah bt S Kowtha Mah 9-2.

State ranking
Boys
U-10 Pre-Q/F: A Jain bt R Shinde 8-0; A Arora bt A Kowtha 8-2; D Dass bt S Bhogawat 8-3; A Gujrathi bt A Sandhu 8-0; S Akut bt N Gawkar 8-2; J Desai bt A Detan 8-0; A Wagh bt J Khirsagar 8-1; T Chaukulkar bt D Dhurandhar 8-1.
U-12 Pre-Q/F: K Narsimhan bt T Chaukulkar 8-2; A Satoskar bt S Akut 8-1; A Arora bt R Apte 8-1; A Gladwin bt J Desai 8-1; A Jain bt S Telang 8-2; H Pataskar bt S Sahay 8-1; B Selarka bt A Gohad 8-0.