Sport - Tennis   

Praveen rallies to upset Kiran Kumar

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE June 11. R.K. Praveen battled back in a gritty fashion to beat the eighth seed, N. Kiran Kumar 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-3 to mark the lone upset in the boys under-18 singles event in the Embassy-AITA Super Series tennis championship which got underway at the Sadhashivanagar Club courts here on Wednesday.

The battle between the two Bangalore youngsters, who slugged away steadily from the baseline easily, was one of the riveting contest of the day and though there was nothing much to separate the two, Praveeen kept his focus and seized his chances in the decider to come out on top.

The second round saw few more extended encounters. The top seed, Jeevan Nedunchezian of Tamil Nadu was fully tested by a spirited Kinshuk Sharma of Chandigarh, who incidentally is the top seed in the under-14 singles. In the prolonged tie, which was played under floodlights, Jeevan overcame Kinshuk at 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 6-2.

In other matches, Siddarth Patil of Maharashtra prevailed over Karthik S. Raju of Karnataka 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 and Tejasvi Rao stopped the qualifier, Aniketh Gaskade 6-1, 6-7(4-7), 6-4.

Earlier in the under-14 section, the top seeded Kinshuk opened the campaign with a facile 6-4, 6-0 win over S. Akut of Maharashtra. In the girls under-18 section, the fifth seed, Asha Nandakumar of Karnataka, who won the under-18 singles title last week in the AITA Championships Series, was stretched by P. Swathi of Tamil Nadu before winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. The top seed, Sandri Gangotri of Andhra Pradesh, blasted the qualifier, Ujjal Kaur 6-0, 6-0.

The results

Boys under-18 singles (second round): Abhay Prakash bt Siddharth Alapatti 6-3, 7-6 (9-7); Siddarth Patil bt Karthik S. Raju 6-2, 5-7, 6-3; R.K. Praveen bt N. Kiran Kumar 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-3; Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Somdeep Appinini 6-3, 6-4; Tejasvi Rao bt Aniketh 6-1,6-7 (4-7), 6-4; Jeevan Nedunchezhian bt Kinshuk Sharma 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 6-2.

Boys under-18 singles (first round): N. Kiran Kumar (Kar) bt Mesheer Vaswani (Kar) 6-3, 6-3; Govind Ram Mohan (Kar) bt Sujit Sachidanand (Kar) 6-2, 6-2; Gaskade Aniket (Mah) bt G.P. Prajnesh (TN) 6-0, 6-1; Kinshuk Sharma (Chd) bt Rahil Makharia (Mah) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Jeevan Nedunchezhian (TN) bt P. Vivek Reddy (AP) 6-4, 6-3; R.K. Praveen (Kar) bt Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (TN) 6-1, 6-0; Karthik S. Raju (Kar) bt Quadros Keegan (Mah) 7-5, 6-1; Tejasvi Rao (Mah) bt Marlon Coelho (Mah) 6-0, 6-2; Rohan Gide (Mah) bt Karan Dhillon (WB) 6-1, 6-3; Siddharth Patil (Mah) bt Manu Bajpai (Kar) 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Siddharth Alapatti (Mah) bt Sai Saketh (AP) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Abhay Prakash (Kar) bt Sriram Mangal (TN) 6-3, 7-5; S. Prateek (Kar) bt Arjun Vaidya (Mah) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; Somdeep Appinini (AP) bt M. Hariprasath (TN) 6-4, 6-4; Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Kaushik S. Raju (Kar) 6-4, 6-4.

Boys under-14 singles (first round): Kinshuk Sharma (Chd) bt S. Akut (Mah) 6-4, 6-0; Michael R. Shetty (Mah) bt V. Sudarshan (TN) 6-0, 7-5; Preethan Roy Morris (Kar) bt Kaustab Inamdar (Kar) 6-4, 6-3; Debendra Das (Mah) bt Zubair Virjee (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; V. Vignesh (TN) bt G. Prajnesh (TN) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3; Pranav Gandhi (Mah) bt Yuki Bhambri (Del) 6-4, 6-2; Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (AP) bt Zehan Laliwala (Guj) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); A.S. Suresh Kumar (AP) bt N. Shreyas (Kar) 6-2, 6-0; Mishir Vaswani (Kar) bt K.M. Suraj (Kar) 6-3, 6-0.

Girls under-18 singles (first round): Sandri Gangotri (AP) bt Ujjal Kaur (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Shushrutha Reddy (AP) bt Nikita Shravan (AP) 6-0, 6-3; Amulya Raghunath (Kar) bt Sanjana Gopal (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Asha Nandakumar (Kar) bt P. Swathi (TN) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Kanisha Mehta (Mah) bt Chirashanthi Rajur (Kar) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Parija Maloo (Mah) bt Prerna Maithri (AP) 6-3, 6-3; Vandana Murali (TN) bt Akshitha B. Raj (Kar) 6-4, 6-3; Preethi Shravan (AP) bt Unnathi Purushotham (AP) 6-4, 6-3; P. Meghana (AP) bt M. Niroshitha (AP) 6-3, 6-1; Sanjana Kapur bt Shravanthi 6-0, 6-0; D. Tejaswini (AP) bt Sanjukta Borah (Asm) 6-1, 6-1; P. Priya (Mah) bt T. Anushree (Kar) 6-1, 2-6, 6-0; Neha Rana (Del) bt Shravyathi (AP) 6-4, 6-4; Varsha Shivshankar (Kar) bt Yamini Alla (AP) 6-0, 6-2; Pooja Shetty (Kar) w/o Shruthi S. Babu; S. Preethi (TN) bt P.V. Rajarajeshwari (AP) 6-0, 6-2.

Girls under-14 singles (first round): Parija Moola (Mah) bt Karamjeet Kaur (Kar ) 6-0, 6-0; P.V. Rajeshwari (AP) bt Nikita (AP) 7-5, 6-3; Sushsruta Reddy (AP) bt Neha Rana (Del) 6-4, 6-3; Akshita B. Raj (Kar) bt Unnati P.(AP) 6-2, 6-2; Sanjana Kapoor (Del) bt Yamini Reddy 6-0, 6-0; Niroshita (AP) bt Paravinder Kaur (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Divya M. Rao (AP) w/o. Sree Kum Kum (Kar); Janani Suresh (TN) bt Nainatara (AP); Gurumeet Kaur (Kar ) bt Pallavi K. Raj (AP) 6-1, 7-5; Poojashree (Kar) bt Ankita Pratap (Kar ) 6-0, 6-0; Shubha A.Chakrala (Kar) bt Harshini Reddy (Kar) 6-1, 4-6, 6-0; Prerna Mythri (AP) bt Alisha Punja (Kar ) 6-1, 6-1; Surabhi Verma (Mah) bt Likitha Devaraj (Kar) 6-1, 6-0; G. Janaki Rao (AP) bt Arti (Mah) 6-0,6-3; Nandita Krishnan (TN) bt J. Keerthana Reddy (AP) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

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