Manas Dhamne gets past top seed Rushil Khosla

Manas Dhamne played the tie-break better to turn the tide in his favour in an intense battle against top seed Rushil Khosla 7-6(4), 6-2 in the boys pre-quarterfinals of the Asian under-14 grade-A junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

On a hot and humid day, In absolutely energy sapping conditions past noon, the two lads fought hard, especially in the first set. After conceding a 2-5 lead, the left-handed Rushil fought back to be on par. However, in the eventual tie-break he erred after the two changed side at 3-3.

Manas punched his shots when required and otherwise showed a lot of patience to stay in the rallies. In terms of expressing his emotions also, Manas was quite conservative, but really let off a scream on winning the first set.

The battle between the two best boys had to be shifted from the main show court No.1, as Nandini Dixit was busy in a long-drawn encounter in taming the top seed in the girls section Maria Breidy of Lebanon 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

Manas will have another big hurdle in the quarterfinals, as he will face fifth seed Yuvan Nandanl, who got past Arunava Majumder 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Nandini was the better of the two players but lacked the conviction to let her game dictate the flow after having jumped to a reverberating start when she led 5-0. Nandini eventually won 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

The results (pre-quarterfinals):

Boys: Manas Dhamne bt Rushil Khosla 7-6(4), 6-2; Yuvan Nandal bt Arunava Majumder 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; Amirali Ghavan (Iri) bt Samar Malhotra 6-2, 6-1; Ayushmaan Arjeria bt Parag Jain 6-0, 6-0; Tejas Ahuja bt Artin Nazari (Iri) 7-6(1), 6-7(4), 6-4; Vitin Rathee bt Harsh Fogaat 6-4, 6-3; Agriya Yadav bt Omaansh Choudhary Saharia 6-7(3), 6-0, 6-3; Vansh Nandal bt Raghav Harsh 6-1, 6-2.

Girls: Nandini Dixit bt Maria Breidy (Lbn) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2; Samiksha Dabas bt Maisha Rao 6-1, 6-4; Riya Sachdeva bt Anannya Bhatia 6-2, 4-6, 6-4; Saumrita Jagatdeo Verma bt Raja Sarvagnya Kilaru 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Millee Chug bt Shrawani Dudulkar 6-3, 6-4; shruti Ahlawat bt Sahira Singh 6-0, 6-0; Jeetesh Kumari bt Chandni Srinivasan 6-2, 6-2; Pari Singh bt Nemha Sarah Kispotta 6-1, 6-0.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)