Mann Maulik Shah progresses to final of tennis meet

Top-seed Mann Maulik Shah and fourth seed Madhwin Kamath qualified for the final of the India-edition of the Roland-Garros Junior Wild Card Series at the RK Khanna Tennis Complex, DLTA, here on Tuesday.

In the girls' category, it was top-seed Salsa Aher who got knocked out as she lost to fourth-seed Shaikh Humera, while unseeded Sarah Dev caused another upset as she defeated second-seed Bhakti Shah to advance to the final match.

In the boys' category, top-seed Mann Maulik Shah displayed his brilliance as he defeated 3rd-seed Kabir Hans from Odisha in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.

The match saw the top-seeded player from Gujarat produce a master-class as he ran away with the victory, and qualified for the Final match of the competition for the second consecutive year.

In the other semi-final match, it was fourth-seed Madhwin Kamath who came out on top as his opponent, second-seed Dev V Javia could not compete in the second set of the match.

After having lost the first set to Kamath 4-6, Javia tried to battle it out in the second set but had to retire from the match after picking up an injury. This meant that Gujarat's Kamath registered his place in the final match, and will be facing top-seed Shah on Wednesday.

The girls' category saw second-seed Bhakti Shah, who had produced a fantastic straight-set victory in her quarter-final match on Monday, lose to unseeded player from Punjab, Sarah Dev in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.

It was Dev, who started the match brightly as she rushed to a healthy lead to take the first set 6-3, and then managed to consolidate her position in the match as she bagged the second set 6-4.

--IANS

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