BENGALURU, SEP 3 (IANS): Local junior tennis players continued to make their presence felt as the KSLTA World Tennis Tour Junior J30 Bengaluru moved into the semifinals, with Aahida Singh producing the standout result of the girls’ singles quarterfinals by defeating third seed and citymate Disha Kumar 6-4, 6-4.
Aahida and Disha, both Bengaluru players, produced a closely fought contest, matching each other with some excellent stroke-play. Aahida kept her composure at the crucial moments to take both sets 6-4 and book her place in the last four.
The victory sets up an interesting semifinal for Aahida, who will face Zoha Qureshi, who advanced with a walkover against Bawyasri Asr.
Fourth-seed Shreeniti Chowdhury continued her impressive run, defeating eighth seed Riddhi Shinde 6-1, 6-4. The 15-year-old moved into the semifinals, where she will face sixth seed Vasundra Balajee, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Akshita Antil.
In the boys’ singles, top seed and home favourite Tejas Ravi overcame Shlok Chauhan 6-4, 7-6(5) in a closely fought quarterfinal. The 17-year-old had to contend with several unforced errors but also produced flashes of brilliance, particularly when under pressure. Shlok matched him with some impressive shot-making and pushed the second set into a tie-break, but Tejas held his nerve to close out the match in straight sets.
Tejas will meet third seed Niyanth Badrinarayanan of the USA, who defeated Mahijeet Pradhan 6-2, 6-4. In the other semifinal, sixth seed Fazal Ali Meer will take on fourth seed Vivaan Mirdha. Fazal upset second seed Ahan Shetty 6-3, 6-1, while Vivaan defeated Varad Undre 6-3, 6-2.
