Vignesh, Rishika emerge champions

Vignesh Subramanyan of Karnataka and Rishika Ravi of Tamil Nadu scored comfortable wins to claim the boys’ and girls’ singles titles respectively in the KTPPA-AITA Under-18 Championship Series tennis tournament at the KSLTA Stadium here on Wednesday.

In an all Karnataka boys’ final, Vignesh swept aside Rishi Reddy 6-2, 6-1 while Rishika tamed her Karnataka opponent, Sonashe Bhatnagar, 6-0, 6-3 in the girls’ final.

A keen battle was expected when Vignesh and Rishi locked horns in the final as the latter, only a few hours before, had knocked out the top seed Vasudev Vijay Raman of Tamil Nadu in the semifinal.

Rishi, however, failed to reproduce the form he had shown in his last-four outing.

Though Rishi came up with some sparkling forehand winners, he often ran into problem with his first serve and committed far too many errors.

Vignesh, on the other hand, was served well by his strong backhand and volleys as he systematically dismantled his rival’s challenge. Rishika proved too good for a slow Sonashe.

It was Rishika’s second successive title in Bangalore in as many weeks. She had won the girls’ singles title in the Century Club tournament last week.

In doubles, Karnataka’s R Ribhav and TN’s Vasudev emerged boys’ champions while the Karnataka duo of Shivani Manjanna and  Gopika Madhu beat their State-mates S Soha and Nikita Pinto to win the girls’ doubles title.

Results: Boys’ singles final: Vignesh S (Kar) bt Rishi Reddy (Kar) 6-2, 6-1.
Semifinals: Rishi Reddy bt Vasudev Vijay Raman (TN) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5; Vignesh S bt SM Adhithya (TN) 7-5, 6-3.

Boys’ doubles final: R Ribhav (Kar)/ Vasudev Vijay Raman (TN) bt S Balaji/ Samudh Sharma (TN) 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-2.

Girls’ singles final: Rishika Ravi (TN) bt Sonashe Bhatnagar (Kar) 6-0, 6-3.

Semifinals: Rishika Ravi bt Shivani Manjanna (Kar) 6-4, 6-3; Sonashe Bhatnagr bt Diana Abhi (TN) 6-4, 6-2.

Girls’ doubles final: Shivani Manjanna/ Gopika Madhu (Kar) bt Nikita Pinto/ S Soha (Kar) 6-2, 6-3.