Kausalya battles her way to title
Andhra Pradesh girl survives Akshaya challenge to clinch U-12 crown
Top seed Kausalya Kalaparthy of Andhra Pradesh warded off a stiff challenge from second seed S Akshaya of Tamil Nadu to clinch the girls' under-12 singles crown in the AITA Talent Series junior tennis championship at the True Bounce Tennis Academy courts on Thursday.
Akshaya jumped to a 5-3 lead in the first set and went as far as a set point before making a series of mistakes to give Kausalya a chance to comeback. Kausalya then rallied to win four games in a row to grab a set lead. A similar story unfolded in the second set as Akshaya jumped to a 3-0 lead before she lost her grip on things and Kausalya capitalised to clinch the crown.
Things, however, were pretty one-sided in the corresponding boys’ final as Andhra Pradesh’s Srivatsa Ratakonda posted a facile 6-1, 6-3 win over Karnataka’s Maaz Khan for the title.
In the boys’ under-14 doubles section, the top-seeded Karnataka pair of PM Ganapathy and K Hemanth strolled past Karnataka’s Rishi Reddy and P Bhavesh from Tamil Nadu 6-0, 6-1. The under-14 girls’ doubles final also followed a near identical script as Karnataka’s Soha and Hrishika Rajesh thumped CS Praneetha from TN and Shikha N Singh from Karnataka 6-2, 6-2.
Results (final unless stated otherwise): Boys: Under-14 doubles: PM Ganapathy/ K Hemanth (Kar) bt Rishi Reddy (Kar)/ P Bhavesh (TN) 6-0, 6-1.
Under-12 singles: Srivatsa Ratakonda (AP) bt Maaz Khan (Kar) 6-1, 6-3.
Girls: Under-14 doubles: Soha/ Hrishika Rajesh (Kar) bt CS Praneetha (TN)/ Shikha N Singh (Kar) 6-2, 6-2.
Under-12 singles: Kousalya Kalparthy (AP) bt S Akshaya (TN) 7-5, 7-5.
Semifinals: Kousalya bt Shriya Vivek 6-1, 6-1; S Akshaya bt Prathyusha 6-3, 6-3.
