Sanjana sizzles, but India loses to Malaysia

Sanjana Sirimalla gave a rousing start, but two defeats in super tie-breaks including the doubles, saw India being beaten 2-1 by Malaysia in the tie for the minor placings in the Asia Oceania Junior Fed Cup under-16 tennis tournament in Bangkok on Friday.

Sanjana blanked Sze Xuan Lim in the first rubber to put India, which had beaten Indonesia earlier, in a strong position. However, Bhakti Shah in the second singles, and later Sanjana with Sudipta Senthilkumar in the doubles, lost the super tiie-break, on being one set all, with identical margin of 6-10.

India will next play Sri Lanka for the 11th place.

In the semifinals, seventh seed Chinese Taipei, which had earlier knocked out top seed Australia, beat third seed Korea 2-0 while second seed Thailand beat China 2-1. The top four teams have already qualified for the World Group competition to be staged later in the season in Europe.

The results (9th to 12th place): Malaysia bt India 2-1 (Sze Xuan Lim lost to Sanjana Sirimalla 0-6, 0-6; Sharifah Elsa Wanabdul Rahman bt Bhakti Shah 6-2, 3-6, [10-6]; Zanning Lim & Sharifah Elsa Wanabdul Rahman bt Sudipta Senthilkumar & Sanjana Sirimalla 6-3, 3-6, [10-6]).

(Courtesy: The Hindu)