Sacchitt Sharma and Shivani Amineni triumph as No.1

It was a near flawless execution as top seeds Sacchitt Sharma and Shivani Amineni won the boys and girls titles respectively in the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

Sacchitt beat the second seeded Kasidit Samrej of Thailand 6-1, 6-4 while Shivani meted out a similar treatment to the girls No.2 seed Erin Richardson of Britain, cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

Interestingly, both Sacchitt and Shivani did not drop a set through the tournament, which featured many quality players from different countries.

The 17-year-old Sacchitt, ranked 129 in the world, was prepared for the final, against the equally tall Thai who had asserted his strong game through the earlier rounds before being teased by Romain Faucon of Belgium in a three-setter in the semifinals.

More than the big serves, Sacchitt impressed with his sharp strikes into the corners of the court, as he moved swiftly into his strokes, exasperating the Thai, who struggled to find his rhythm.

Once Sacchitt raced to a vibrant start, winning the first five games, it was tough for the Thai to find his way back into the match. The writing was on the wall when Sacchitt broke Kasidit in the first game of the second set.

Yet, to his credit the Thai was able to show glimpses of his calibre, when he saved two match points from 15-40 in the ninth game to hold serve. Sacchitt responded by serving out the match without any fuss in the next game.

It was the second title of the season for Sacchitt, who is coached by Arif Khan, following his grade-2 triumph in Chinese Taipei earlier in the season.

Despite the niggle in his knee, Sacchitt has been able to play a robust game, and will attempt to capitalise on the grade-3 event next week in Pune, before he goes to Thailand for a training stint at the centre run by coach Stephen Koon.

Shivani Amineni has been striking the ball clean all week, and proved too hard to tackle for the second seeded Erin Richardson of Britain, who was tentative with her game.

Shivani dropped only 17 games in all in five rounds, and blanked two of her opponents along the way. She was a class apart.

The results (finals):

Boys: Sacchitt Sharma bt Kasidit Samrej (Tha) 6-1, 6-4.

Girls: Shivani Amineni bt Erin Richardson (GBR) 6-1, 6-3.