Raut, Koirala lead Nepal’s charge

Lalitpur, September 6

Ira Mehernissa Raut, Priyanka Chaudhary, Rayana Shah, Prerana Koirala and Abhilasha Bista led Nepal’s charge on the second day of the Kesha Group-ANLTA Asian Junior Ranking Tour U-14 Tournament here at Tennis Complex today.

In girls’ all-Nepal second round matches, Raut beat Alsha Regmi 6-1, 6-0, Chaudhary produced a 6-4, 6-3 win against Suravi Katwal, Shah saw off Lumu Tso Lama 6-1, 6-1 and Bista registered a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Saloni Tamang to make it to the quarter-finals.

Likewise, Nepal’s Prerana Koirala outplayed Arshia Ahmed of India 6-0, 6-2, while Sneha Yadav and Isha Shree Shah of Nepal became the casualties to Indian players in girls’ section. Yadav lost 6-1, 6-0 against Lakshanya Vishwanath, while Shah went down 6-2, 6-3 to Shambhavi Tiwari. In all-India match, Tanisha Pranjal beat Iram Zaidi 6-1, 6-2.

In boys’ category, Saharsha Chand defeated Indian opponent Arihant Goel 6-1, 6-1, while Samyak Bajracharya registered a hard-fought 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Shrikant Thakur of India and Adit Subedi edged past fellow Nepali player Aryan Giri 6-2, 6-0. Three Nepali players lost their matches to Indian opponents. Binaya Batas went down 6-1, 6-2 to Ambitious Goldsmith, Suden Giri faced a 6-0, 6-1 loss at the hands of Amitoj Singh Sachdeva and Samragya Katawal suffered a 6-1, 6-1 defeat against Vatsal Srivastava.

In all-India matches, Arnav Pathange beat Sashikant Thakur 6-1, 6-0 and Aryaman Mehta defeated Aman Goel 6-1, 6-1. The winners in both the singles events will fight for 1-8 ranking, while the players who lost their matches in the second round will play for 9-16 ranking.

In girls’ doubles fixtures, the pair of Abhilasha Bista and Ira Rawat beat Priyanka Chaudhary and Sneha Yadav 6-0, 6-0, while the pair of Alsha Regmi and Saloni Tamang recorded a 6-1, 6-1 win over Isha Shree Shah and Rayana Shah in all-Nepal quarter-final matches.

In the boys’ doubles category, Nepali pair of Saharsha Chand and Aadit Subedi beat the Indian duo of Sashikant Thakur and Shrikant Thakur 6-2, 6-3 to take berth in the last four. In other matches, Suden Giri and Evyak Joshi of Nepal lost to Indian pair of Ambitious Goldsmith and Aryaman Mehta 6-1, 6-0, while the duo of Binaya Batas and Chabilal Rawat suffered a 6-1, 6-1 loss against India’s Arnav Pathange and Amitoj Singh Sachdeva.