Third seed Sunish gets past Naow in ITF junior tennis meet semis

Dhruv Sunish, seeded third and the only Indian surviving among all the other Indian boys, brushed aside Syria's Hazem Naow in the semi-final of the ongoing ITF Juniors tennis tournament at the red clay courts of the Dakshin Kalikata Sansad on Friday.

Sunish was almost flawless in the opening set as he grabbed it by a smooth 6-2. The second was a much more contesting affair as the set progressed to five games a piece, where Sunish played to his top gear as he made only two errors in the next 2 games, thereby winning it by a close 7-5.

Sunish, currently seeded second in India, will play Saturday's final against Kazakhstan's Dostanbek Tashbulatov, who drubbed top seeded Hua Chen Yu from Chinese Taipei 6-0, 6-2.

In the girls singles semi-final, top seeded Axana Mareen of Belgium ended the hopes of eighth seeded Shivani Amineni from India in less than 50 minutes, by a straight 6-2, 6-0 triumph.

Mareen will meet third seeded Akanksha Bhan in the final, after the latter fought hard to win against qualifier Lasya Patnaik 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes.

In the boys doubles final, top seeded duo of Hazem Naow and Hua Chen Yu from Syria and Chinese Taipei respectively clinched the trophy by a straight set win of 6-3, 6-4 over fourth seeded Roko Savin of Croatia and Dostanbek Tashbulatov of Kazakhstan.

In the girls doubles final, the top seeded duo of Kuan Yi Lee and Manchaya Sawangkaew, from Chinese Taipei and Thailand respectively and both belonging to the ATF Team prevailed over Belgium's Victoria Kalaitzis and Axana Mareen by a nail-biting 7-6(3), 7-6(2).

--IANS

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