Vasisht, Zeel emerge champs

Karnataka’s Vasisht Cheruku and Zeel Desai of Gujarat annexed the boys and girls singles titles in the MCC-Adidas Junior National clay court tennis championships here on Saturday.

Vasisht, who had won the doubles title on Friday, overcame Nitin Kumar Sinha of West Bengal 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and Zeel easily defeated local challenger Abinikka R 6-4, 6-2, in the title round.

In the boys final, both players displayed excellent ground strokes and mobility. Vasisht broke Nitin twice with strong returns and held serve to lead 4-1. Nitin then served to reduce the lead, but was no match for Vasisht who later wrapped up the set 6-2.

In the second set, Nitin broke Vasisht in the fifth game to take a decisive lead and then broke again in the ninth to win the set 6-3 and level scores.

Repeat show

The third set was a repeat of the first. Vasisht once again served crisply and returned positively to run up a 4-0 lead and go on to win the set 6-1 for the title.

In a match of strong ground strokes Zeel Desai outplayed Abinikka to lift the girls’ title. In the first set, Zeel displayed strong forehands along with some excellent retrieving abilities to counter Abinikka’s strong attacking ground strokes.