AYAAN ENTERS ISC U-16 SEMIFINALS
MUSCAT: Ayaan Malhotra advanced to the semi finals of the boys under-16 singles at the Arabia Falcon Insurance-sponsored Annual Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club.
Ayaan played a strong game and progressed to the last four after fighting his way to a narrow 8-6 victory over Vivek Kolluru in the quarterfinals. Left-hander Vivek displayed brilliance and fighting qualities hen he fought back from 0-3 to level at six games all. Ayaan held in the crucial thirteenth game. Vivek was serving to stay in the match but squandered two game points and double faulted to hand the match to Ayaan.
R Murali advanced to the quarter finals of the men’s singles after recording a convincing 8-3 victory over Mohamad Azharuddin in the second round and lined himself up for a quarterfinal date with top seed Yash Tanna. Teenager Shlok Ail is the first to advance to the semifinals of the mens singles after downing veteran Mohan Kannan 8-1 in the quarterfinals. Hassan Haider also made it to the last eight of the same event after downing PS Sriram 8-2 in the second round.
Aayra, Smriti advance On Sunday, Aayra Malhotra and Smriti Iyer posted impressive victories in their respective first round matches in the junior girls category.
Playing her first match in the round-robin league of the junior girls event, Aayra overcame stomach cramps and played a consistent allround game to record an impressive 6-0 victory over Amritha Shanmukhi. Smriti Iyer also looked in good nick and won her first match with a comprehensive 6-0 win over K V Sowmya. Fancied Kaavya Jayakumar dominated proceedings to sail to a 6-0 win over the hapless Amritha Shanmukhi.
In other matches of the round robin phase of the same event, KV Sowmya defeated Madhura Pandit 6-1, Arshitha AR posted a convincing 6-1 win over Amitha Shanmukhi, who scored her first win of the group with a 6-1 triumph over PV Dhanyasri.
Percy Pereira progressed to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles with two impressive victories. In the first round, Percy defeated Ganesan S. 8-0 and in the second round outlasted Hemchandra Ail 8-1. The elder Pereira, Ronnie also advanced to the quarters by virtue of his convincing 8-1 victory over Manish Sikander. R Murali overcame Shanawaz KK 8-5 to move into the second round of the men’s singles. Murali held a comfortable 4-1 lead at one stage before Shanawaz staged a recovery. Murali held his game together to move into the second round.