Dev Javia, Sanjana Sirimalla reach semifinals

Dev Javia continued to assert his strong all-court game as he bounced back from a sedate start to outplay Dragos Petre Popeanga of Romania 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

In the semifinal, Dev, the only Indian boy to progress thus far, will play Ekansh Kumar of the US. The other semifinal will be between Rostislav Galfinger of Kazakhstan and Daisuke Inagawa of Japan.

In the girls section, Sanjana Sirimalla sustained her good as the lone Indian hope, as she beat Chao-Yi Wang of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 6-4. She will play Salakthip Ounmuang of Thailand in the semifinals.

Mei Hasegawa of Japan ousted the top seed Maira Ssholokhova of Russia in three sets to set up the other semifinal against Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand.

The results:

Under-18 boys (quarterfinals): Dev Javia bt Dragos Petre Popeanga (ROU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1; Ekansh Kumar (US) bt Rikuto Yamaguchi (JPN) 6-3, 6-4; Daisuke Inagawa (JPN) bt Chirag Duhan 6-3, 7-5; Rostislav Galfinger (KAZ) bt Samir Banerjee (US) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Samir Banerjee & Ekansh Kumar (US) bt Rostislav Galfinger (KAZ) & Dragos Petre Popeanga (ROU) 6-4, 6-4; Jack Loutit (NZL) & Jaishvin Sidana bt Nikhil Niranjan (US) & Aryaan Bhatia 5-7, 6-3, [10-8].

Under-18 girls (quarterfinals): Mei Hasegawa (JPN) bt Maria Sholokhova (RUS) 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-1; Lanlana Tararudee (THA) bt Liu Qianyu (Chn) 6-2, 6-0; Sanjana Sirimalla bt Chao-Yi Wang (TPE) 6-1, 6-4; Salakthip Ounmuang (THA) bt Mi Tianmi (CHN) 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Zijun Jiang & Xiaoyan Xue (CHN) bt Sayaka Ishii (JPN) & Liu Qianyu (CHN) 6-2, 6-2; Kirara Morioka (JPN) & Maria Sholokhova (RUS) bt Sarah Dev & Prerna Vichare 1-6, 6-3, [10-3].

(Courtesy: The Hindu)