Shivani pulls off upset, Nitin out of meet due to Australian Open call up

Shivani Manjanna created a major upset showing second seed Kuan Yi Lee the door in the opening round of the 25th ITF Juniors tennis tournament being held at the clay courts of the Dakshin Kalikata Sansad here on Tuesday.

The tournament's main catch in boys singles, national champion Nitin Kumar Sinha, meanwhile, had to make a late withdrawal as he made it to the qualifying list of the Australian Open juniors, scheduled to start from January 21.

Qualifier Manjanna got the much awaited break in the first set at 6-5, thereby bagging it by 7-5.

In the second, Chinese Taipei's Lee got a crucial break at 3-3, but got broken immediately at 4-3 on serve, thereby levelling the set at 4-4. Manjanna got lucky yet again at 6-5 and eventually drubbed the second seed by a close 7-5, 7-5.

Top seed in girls singles, Axana Mareen of Belgium took an hour and fourteen minutes to oust Shivani Swarup Ingle by a dominating 6-1, 6-2.

Meanwhile, qualifier Shivank Bhatnagar's dream run continued as he entered the pre-quarter final by defeating fellow Indian Siddharth Thakran by a 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-2 in a marathon tie.

Mohammed Iftikhar Sheikh, a lucky loser getting into the main draw in place of Sinha, went down against Kazakhsthan's Dostanbek Tashbulatov by a clean 1-6, 2-6.

--IANS

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