PUNE: Pune-based Saina Deshpande, who holds American passport by birth, scored an important win and set herself a dream second round clash with top seeded Maria Sholokhova of Russia, in the Gadre MSLTA-ITF Grade 3 Junior Tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana here on Tuesday.
The 14-year-old ninth standard student of Vikhe Patil Memorial School, Saina defeated fellow qualifer Sudipta Kumar 7-5, 7-5 in the first round clash, in the top half of the draw. She now plays Maria Sholokhova, who beat Sudipta Parwani with the winner earning a place in the quarterfinals.
Later in the doubles tournament, Saina paired up with Madhurima Sawant and lost to the pair from Chinese Taipei Skia Kung and Chao-Yi Wang 6-1, 6-4.
In other girls’ first round action, Bhakti Shah India outplayed Chinese Taipei’s Skia Kung 6-1, 6-3; No 8 seed Mei Hasegawa of Japan beat Suhita Maruri 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) and Tomoko Kato of Japan beat Riya Uboveja 6-3, 6-3 in the bottom half of the draw. Kato will now play the No 2 seed Vipasha Mehra.
Balsekar, Pathange score credible wins
Qualifier Aditya Balsekar and Arnav Pathange scored credible wins int he boys’ draw to enter second round.
Karnataka’s Pathange scored 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) win over Aayush Bhat of the United States, while qualifier Aditya Balsekar shot out Reiya Kombata of Japan 6-3, 6-3.
RESULTS
First Round:
Boys: Singles: Dev Javia (Ind) bt Nithilan Eric (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; Taentawan Taddeo Maggioli (Tha) bt Aditya Chopra (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Arnav Pathange (Ind) bt Aayush P Bhat (US) 6-3, 7-6 (7-1); Aditya Balsekar (Ind) bt Reiya Kombata (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles: Jack Loutit (Nzl) and Jaishvin Sidana (Ind) bt Vansh Kapoor and Kartik Saxena (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Aryaan Bhatia (Ind) and Uddayvir Singh (Ind) bt Udit Gogoi (Ind) and Dhruv Tangri (Ind) 3-6, 6-4, 10-7; Chirag Duhan and Denim Yadav (Ind) bt Vitek Horak (Cze) and Mathias Musil (Cze) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4; Rostislav Galfinger (Kaz) and Dev Javia (Ind) bt Aditya Chopra and Girish Chougule (Ind) 6-0, 6-1.
Girls: Singles: 8-Mei Hasegawa (Jpn) bt Suhita Maruri (Ind) 6-2, 7-6 (7-1); Tomoko Kato (Jpn) bt Riya Uboveja (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Bhakti Shah (Ind) bt Skia Kung (Tpe) 6-1, 6-3; Saina Deshpande (US) bt Sudipta Kumar (Ind) 7-5, 7-5.
Doubles: Prerna Vichare (Ind) and Sayaka Ishi (Jpn) bt Qianyu Lu (Chn) and Zorika Morgan (Sol) 6-4, 6-3; Skia Kung (Tpe) and Chao-Yi Wang (Tpe) bt Saina Deshpande (US) and Madhurima Sawant (Ind) 6-1, 6-4; Zijun Jiang (Chn) and Xiaoyan Xue (Chn) bt Gargi Pawar (Ind) and Riya Uboveja (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Reshma Maruri (Ind) and Suhita Maruri (Ind) bt Hrudaya Shah (Ind) and Rutuja Chaphalkar (US) 3-6, 6-4, 10-2.
