AURANGABAD: Ninth grader from Vikhe Patil Memorial School, Pune, Saina Deshpande, earned herself a semi-final berth with a fighting three-set win over Madhurima Sawant in the girls section of the MSLTA-Yonex Sunrise Under-14 national tennis tournament at the Endurance Marathwada-MSLTA Tennis Center at the Divisional Sports Complex here on Thursday.
The win was more sweeter given that Madhurima had shut out the top seed Chandni Srinivasan to open up the top half of the draw. “Madhurima is a good player and she obviously was playing her best,” Saina told Sakal Times.
“I have played against her before and her shots are good and aggressive, but after she won the second set, I really felt that match could go either way,” explained Saina, who won 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
“There is still a long way to go for me as a player. My coach, Sandeep Kirtane, has been helping me be a better player in all three areas of acquiring tennis skills, improving my fitness and helping me to stay on top of the game mentally,” she said.
Saina recently played in a ITF junior in Maputo in Mozambique where she got her first ITF Junior points.
“While playing with players from other countries, I realised there is still a lot for me to learn specially in the areas of fitness and have some more variety of shots in my arsenal like slices and drops.
RESULTS
Boys:
Quarterfinals: Adhiri Awal (Del) bt 6-Cahir Warik (Mah) 6-1, 6-3; Siddharth Marathe (Mah) bt 3-Pranav Rethin (Kar) 7-5, 6-2; Jaishnav Shinde (Mah) bt 2-Rushil Khosla (Kar) 6-2, 6-4; Mutyala Vineeth (Mah) bt Vaibhav Sriram (Mah) 6-4, 6-4.
Girls:
Quarterfinals: 6-Ruma Gaikaiwari (Mah) bt 2-Nandini Dixit (Har) 6-4, 6-2; 9-Pari Chavan(Mah) bt Sahira Singh (Pun) 6-1, 6-4; 4-Kundana Bandaru (TN) bt 12-Amodini Naik (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; Saina Deshpande (Mah) bt Madhurima Sawant (Mah) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
