Zeel Desai beat Naho Sato of Japan 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the girls’ semifinals of the ITF grade-2 junior tennis tournament in Hong Kong on Friday.
The 17-year-old, ranked a career-best 53 in the world, will be challenged by Thasaporn Naklo of Thailand in the final.
The results: ITF grade-2 juniors, Hong Kong: Boys: Semifinals: Yu Hsiou Hsu (Tpe) bt Adil Kalanpur 6-1, 6-0. Quarterfinals: Adil bt Thomas Bosancic (Aus) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). Doubles: Quarterfinals: Yu Feng Chen & Tsung-Hao Huang (Tpe) bt Tao Mu (Chn) & Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(9), 6-3.
Girls: Semifinals: Zeel Desai bt Naho Sato (Jpn) 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; Quarterfinals: Thasaporn Naklo (Tha) bt Mihika Yadav 6-1, 7-5; Zeel bt Anri Nagata (Jpn) 6-2, 6-4. Doubles: Quarterfinals: Shou Na Mu & Keyi Zhou (Chn) bt Lulu Radovcic (Sui) & Zeel Desai 6-0, 6-3.
ITF grade-5 juniors, Dhaka: Semifinals: Boys: Chan Woo Park (Kor) bt Sacchitt Sharma 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; Rishabh Sharda bt Mritunjay Badola 7-6(3), 6-3. Doubles: Daehan Kim & Joghun Lee (Kor) bt Rohit Krishna Aynampudi & Nikit Reddy 7-6(5), 6-3; Gunjan Jadhav & Sacchitt Sharma bt Ki Bum Kim & Chan Woo Park (Kor) 7-6(3), 6-4.
Girls: Tanisha Kashyap bt Muskan Gupta 6-2, 6-4. Doubles: Katie Lafrance (USA) & Ji Min Park (Kor) bt Muskan Gupta & Tanisha Kashyap 6-1, 4-6, [10-7]; Yujjao Che & Jing Yang (Chn) bt Sarah Menezes & Malvika Shukla 6-1, 6-2. — Sports Bureau
