Siddhant enters junior tennis final

Top seed Siddhant Banthia was the lone top seed to survive in the semifinals on the penultimate day of the Walchand Cup All-India Ranking National Series Under-16 Tennis Tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana courts here Friday.

Maharashtra's Banthia defeated Arnav Bhardwaj of Haryana 6-1, 6-3 to enter the final, to be played Saturday. He will meet Andhra Pradesh's Sivadeep Kosaraju, who upset Armaan Bhatia of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-3.

Siddhant also won the doubles title, teaming up with Bhatia, to beat Amit Beniwal of Haryana and Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh 6-2, 6-4.

In the girls semi-finals, fourth seed Shivani Amineni defeated top seed Shivani Ingle 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Amineni will meet Prinkle Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, who beat No. 2 seed Harsha Sai Challa of Andhra Pradesh 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Semifinals results:

Boys: 1-Siddhant Banthia (Mah) bt 4-Arnav Bhardwaj (Har) 6-1, 6-3; 3-Sivadeep Kosaraju (AP) bt 2-Armaan Bhatia (Mah) 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (final): Arman Bhatia and Siddhant Banthia bt Amit Beniwal and Kosaraju Sivadeep 6-2, 6-4.

Girls: 4-Shivani Amineni (AP) bt 1-Shivani Ingle (Mah) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; 3-Prinkle Singh (J&K) bt 2-Harsha Sai Challa (AP) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Doubles (final): Sivanuja Peddada and Megha Muthukumara bt Prinkle Singh and Kritika Chhabra 6-3, 3-6, 10-4.