Vatsal clinches U-10 title
MUSCAT: Vatsal Manikandan clinched the boys under-10 singles crown at the Annual Tennis Tournament sponsored by Falcon Insurance Company and organised by the Indian Social Club.
In a repeat of last year’s final, the top seed dominated the title clash from start to finish to retain the boys under-10 crown with an emphatic 6-1, 6-1 win over second seed Praneeth Raj. It was in February this year that Vatsal had lost to Praneeth in the semifinal of the ISC Open Junior tournament. Vatsal served three aces and showed consistency in his ground strokes.
Stuti Mathur, Smrithi Iyer, J Kaavya and Akshitha AR qualified for the semifinals of the girls under-12 singles. Stuti finished on top of her group remaining unbeaten in the round robin league, while Smrithi Iyer topped the other group. In the semifinal, Stuti will take on Akshitha AR and J Kaavya will play Smrithi Iyer for a place in the final.
MURALI ENTERS FINAL Defending champion R Murali entered the final of the veterans singles beating fourth seed Percy Pereira 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 in the semifinal. Percy, who had outplayed Daraius Basu 8-6 in the quarterfinal, was outdone by Murali’s advances to the net and brilliant finishes.
Meanwhile, Karthikeyan V caused a major upset in the veterans’ singles when he upset third seed Ronnie Pereira in the pre-quarterfinals. KK Girish was in top form as he demolished R Jayakumar 8-0 to line-up a quarterfinal date against Karthikeyan.