Top seed Vasisht Vinod Cheruku beat Anurag Nenwani 6-0, 6-1 to make the boys’ semifinals of the adidas-MCC National under-18 tennis championship at the Madras Cricket Club on Thursday.
Abinikka Renganathan retired at 0-5 in the first set to let defending champion Zeel Desai book a girls’ semifinal berth. Second seed Sathwika Sama beat Vaidehi Chaudhari 7-6(6), 6-2 to go through.
The shot of the match came with Sathwika leading 4-3 in the first set, when she ended a rally by crushing a forehand down the line as her opponent could only watch it rebound after hitting the billboard with a resounding thud. It was an unmistakeable statement of authority.
However, it was not all easy for the Hyderabad teenager. When the chair umpire intervened to resolve an appeal in favour of her opponent, she was left indignant and the contest spiced up. Vaidehi made an unforced error soon after and Sathwika let out a shriek of delight.
Immediately after, Vaidehi hit a winning volley and strutted back satisfied at having fired a return salvo.
But Sathwika clinched the tie-break eventually, leaving Vaidehi to wallop the ball at the billboard in frustration. Sathwika had it much easier in the second set as Vaidehi was unable to sustain her vigour.
Vasisht made the doubles final as he and Sahil Deshmukh beat Anurag Nenwani and Dhruv Sunish 6-1, 6-4.
The results: Boys: Quarterfinals: Shramay Dhawan bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3; Vasisht Vinod Cheruku bt Anurag Nenwani 6-0, 6-1; Manish Sureshkumar bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-1, 6-1; Parikshit Somani bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Doubles semifinals: Vasisht Vinod Cheruku & Sahil Deshmukh bt Anurag Nenwani & Dhruv Sunish 6-1, 6-4; Parikshit Somani & Paras Dahiya bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa & Parum Pun 6-7(5), 7-5, 10-6.
Girls: Quarterfinals: Sathwika Sama bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 7-6(6), 6-2; Vanshika Sawhney bt Thannushree Palani Vale 6-3, 6-2; Zeel Desai bt Abinikka Renganathan 5-0 (Retd); Shivani Swarup Ingle bt Himani Mor 3-6, 7-6(4)(retd). Doubles semifinals: Sathwika Sama & Harsha Sai Challa bt Shaikh Humera & Rashmika Rajan 6-2, 6-4; Vaidehi Chaudhari & Shivani Swarup Ingle bt Lalitha Devarakonda & Nida Shahid Kamal 6-0, 2-6, 10-8.
