Agriya Yadav, Pari Singh win Asian under-14 crown

Agriya Yadav and Pari Singh won the boys and girls titles in the Asian under-14 grade-A tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

Agriya Yadav, who trains with coach Aditya Sachdeva at the Team Tennis Centre in Siri Fort Sports Complex, served strong and hit his strokes with intensity in beating the fifth seed Yuvan Nandal 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

In fact, both the Haryana boys train at the Impact Academy in Thailand with coach Stephen Koon. They know each other’s game, and compete hard.

At the crunch, it was the hunger of Agriya and his desire to beat Yuvan and lift the trophy that prevailed. Yuvan lacked the sting in his serves and the quick reaction to the sharp strokes of his opponent. He did have the game as he showed in winning the second set, but lacked the intensity of concentration to make it a better fight or turn the match in his favour.

It was a bit of an anti-climax as Yuvan slithered to defeat without a token of a fight after 2-2 in the decider.
In the girls final, the smooth-stroking Pari Singh capitalised on the early leads in both the sets to win the title against Nandini Dixit 6-4, 6-4.

The latter did fight back from being down 2-4 in both the sets to be on par at 4-4, but lacked the confidence to capitalise on the favourable flow to fight better.

Coach Vishaal Uppal was pleased with the way Nandini played her shots through the match and stayed in the long rallies with her forceful strokes.

It was an interesting match, as Pari had dropped only nine games in all in beating four opponents in the earlier rounds.
Pari, who trains with coach Shalini Thakur Chawla, was quite smart in playing according to the demands of the situation, rather than be in any hurry to demonstrate her athletic or stroking ability.

Despite their different styles of play, both Pari and Nandini made it an entertaining contest for everyone who witnessed the match.

The results (finals):

Boys: Agriya Yadav bt Yuvan Nandal 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Girls: Pari Singh bt Nandini Dixit 6-4, 6-4.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)