Lakshanya wears U-12 crown

 Second seed Lakshanya Vishwanath emerged champion in the girls’ U-12 category in the AITA Championship Series National-ranking tennis tournament, conducted by Mahila Seva Samaj Tennis Club, here on Sunday.

Lakshanya registered 6-4, 7-5 win over unseeded Deepshikha Sriram en route her title.
Earlier, Deepshikha had created an upset as she easily  overcame top seed Sanya Masand 8-2 in the semifinals, while Lakshanya thrashed eighth seeded Manasvi Vardhan  8-1 in the other last-four tie.

Meanwhile, in the boys’ under-12 semifinal, unseeded Vishal Gautham brushed aside a challenge from third seed Aayush P Bhat 8-6 to enter the title round of the tournament.
Vishal will take on eighth seed Samanth Achal of Maharashtra in the finals, who claimed an easy 8-3 win over twelfth seed Arjun Prem Kumar in the other last-four clash.

Vishal had earlier defeated Skandha Prasanna Rao, seeded ninth , 8-4 in another quarterfinal fixture. 

Results: Boys (prefix denotes seeding): U-12: Semifinals: Vishal Gautham bt 3-Aayush P Bhat 8-6; 8-Samanth Achal bt 12-Arjun Prem Kumar 8-3.

Quarterfinals: Vishal Gautham bt 9-Skandha Prasanna Rao 8-4; 3-Aayush P Bhat bt 5-Tharakesh Ashokar 8-5; 12-Arjun Prem Kumar bt 14-Pranav Karthik 8-4; 8-Samanth Achal bt 2-LN Nithis Balaji 8-4.

Girls: U-12: Final: 2-Lakshanya Vishwanath bt Deepshikha Sriram 6-4, 7-5.
Semifinals: Deepshikha Sriram bt 1-Sanya Masand 8-2; 2-Lakshanya Vishwanath bt 8-Manasvi Vardhan 8-1.

Quarterfinals: 1-Sanya Masand bt 5-Kushi Vishwanth 8-2; Deepshikha Sriram bt 6-Rashmi Basavaraj 8-3; 8-Manasvi Vardhan M bt 4-Kaasvi Bhatia 8-7 (4); 2-Lakshanya Vishwanath bt Suhitha M 8-2.