Malikaa Marathe saves four match points to beat Sanjana Sirimalla

Malikaa Marathe roared back from a precarious position, saved four match points, to beat Sanjana Sirimalla 5-7, 7-6(8), 6-2 in the girls first round of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Undaunted, even while staring at defeat at 5-7, 1-5, Malikaa served with punch and stroked with purpose to wriggle out of the shackles. She saved two matchpoints at 15-40 in the twelfth game of the second set, on her serve, to stay in the fight. She saved two more in the tie-break, before turning the match in her favour.

Malikaa did miss serving out the match at 5-1 in the decider, but had gained enough confidence in her ability to close it out in the next game.

In the pre-quarterfinals, the seventh seeded Malikaa will face Bhakti Shah.

In other matches, Sarah Dev overcame a weak start to beat Gargi Pawar in three sets, while Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty and Kaavya Sawhney played strong to win in straight sets against quality opponents, Jagmeet Kaur Grewal and Farhat Aleen Qamar respectively.

In the boys event, Dev Javia asserted himself against the robust game of Sushant Dabas in two tight sets, while qualifier Tarush Bagai pulled through to a memorable 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 victory over the gangling Arnav Pathange.

The results (first round):

Boys: Anurag Agarwal bt Sarthak Suden 7-5, 6-4; Ajay Malik bt Rohan Srivastava 6-2, 6-2; Tarush Bagai bt Arnav Pathange 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-5; Dev Javia bt Sushant Dabas 7-6(6), 7-5.

Girls: Sarah Dev bt Gargi Pawar 1-6, 6-2, 6-1; Malikaa Marathe bt Sanjana Sirimalla 5-7, 7-6(8), 6-2; Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty bt Jagmeet Kaur Grewal 6-3, 6-3; Kaavya Sawhney bt Farhat Aleen Qamar 6-4, 6-4.