Dev Javia triumphs; Sanjana Sirimalla bows to Lanlana Tararudee

Top seed Dev Javia played an all-round game with a high degree of concentration to exasperate Rostislav Galfinger of Kazakhstan for a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the boys final of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Saturday.

Serving well, moving smoothly into his strokes and hitting the top spin drives with varying degrees of loop, the 17-year-old Dev controlled the contest, and his tall opponent like a puppet on strings.

It was the third title of the season, after the two in grade-3 for Dev, who aspires to improve his ranking further from his current status of 134 over the next few weeks, so as to play the Australian Open junior event in January in Melbourne.

The Gujarat left-hander may be wiry, but has the energy, and very sound coaching support to be able to live his dreams at a time when the Indian juniors are not able to make much headway on the world stage.

In the girls final, the 759th ranked Sanjana Sirimalla tried hard but her tired legs would not cooperate with her against the explosive strokeplay of the Thai, Lanlana Tararudee, who hit her forehand with classic elegance and timing.

The 172nd Lanlana won 6-4, 6-2. She was in a spot of bother early in the second set as she trailed 0-2, but kept her cool to stroke her way through in the next six games.

It was a commendable effort that Sanjana had fought her way to the final in a good field, with sheer grit and the ability to hit clean when she got into position.

It will be another good opportunity for the Indian players when they move to Pune for the grade-3 tournament next week.

The former national coach and Chairman of the national selection committee, Balram Singh presented the trophies.

The results (finals):

Under-18 boys: Dev Javia bt Rostislav Galfinger (KAZ) 6-4, 6-4.

Under-18 girls: Lanlana Tararudee (THA) bt Sanjana Sirimalla 6-4, 6-2.

(Courtesy: THe Hindu)