Sacchitt Sharma, Shivani Amineni make the finals of ITF juniors

Top seeds Sacchitt Sharma and Shivani Amineni kept the Indian hopes alive by making the singles final of the boys and girls sections respectively in the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

The tall Sacchitt, hampered by a niggle in the knee, packed enough punches in his game to subdue Ryuhei Azuma of Japan 7-5, 7-6(3).

After he had sailed through the first three rounds, Sacchitt found the Japanese a hard nut to crack but that was a good preparation for him for the final against the formidable second seed Kasidit Samrej of Thailand.

The tall and strongly-built Thai, quite an athlete, fought his way into the final after losing the first set in the tie-break against the all-round game of Romain Faucon of Belgium. Kasidit struggled with his second serves and that stretched the contest to the wire before he prevailed 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-5.
The Japanese had the consolation of winning the doubles title in partnership with Natthayut Nithithananont of Thailand.

Shivani Amineni continued to assert her strong game after a hesitant start, as she stroked her way past Pimrada Jattavapornvanit of Thailand for the loss of six games. She had dropped only seven games earlier, all of them in the match against Sarah Dev. Shivani had won her first round and quarterfinals by blanking her opponents.

She will start the favourite against the second seed Erin Richardson of Britain who tamed Muskan Gupta 6-3, 6-1. Muskan had the strokes but not the matching mobility or variety to check the ability of the Briton.

In the girls doubles final, top seeds Salsa Aher and Kaavya Sawhney put up a good fare against Everlina Kontareva of Russia and Erin Richardson of Britain, before being beaten 10-3 in the super tie-break.

The results:

Boys (semifinals): Sacchitt Sharma bt Ryuhei Azuma (Jpn) 7-5, 7-6(3); Kasidit Samrej (Tha) bt Romain Faucon (Bel) 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (final): Ryuhei Azuma (Jpn) & Natthayut NIthithananont (Tha) bt Lancelot Carnello (Swe) & Darrshan Suresh (Mas) 6-3, 6-2.

Girls (semifinals): Shivani Amineni bt Pimrada Jattavapornvanit (Tha) 6-3, 6-3; Erin Richardson (GBR) bt Muskan Gupta 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles (final): Evelina Kontareva (Rus) & Erin Richardson (GBR) bt Salsa Aher & Kaavya Sawhney 6-4, 3-6, [10-3].