Vasisht moves into tennis semis

Top seed Vasisht V. Cheruku of Karnataka stormed into the boys under-18 singles semi-finals with a facile 6-1, 6-3 victory over the Tamil Nadu qualifier S. Manish in the M.P. Prakash memorial AITA Championship Series tennis tournament here Wednesday.

The hard-hitting Vasisht, a trainee of coach Prahlad Srinath at SAT Academy, proved too good his rival. Vasisht's teammate Rishi Reddy, also entered the semi-finals with a comeback 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over S.M. Adithya of Tamil Nadu.

The third seed, Mayukh Rawat of Uttarakhand, No.5 Raghav Jaisinghania of Madhya Pradesh also moved into the semi-finals.

In the boys under-16 singles, the only Karnataka survivor was the fourth seed Sai Pranav Ponaka who made it to the semi-finals beating team-mate Pralok Ikkruthy at 6-1, 6-3.

He was joined in the last four round by the top seed, Raghav Jaisinghania and two Tamil Nadu lads, Manaz and Pranash Babu, seeded second and third, respectively.

In the girls section, the top two seeds from Karnataka Rashmika Rajan and Shivani Manjanna entered under-16 singles semi-finals. Shivani defeated Priya Nayak, also of Karnataka 6-1, 6-4 while Rashmika overcame team-mate SB Apoorva 6-3, 6-0.

Rashmika, however, lost to the sixth seed Mahak Jain of Maharashtra at 1-6, 6-0, 6-3 in the under-18 singles. Mahak was joined by Nikita Pinto of Karnataka who beat teammate Shikha N. Singh 6-1, 6-2.

Quarter-final results:

Boys Under-18 singles: Vinod Vasisht Cherkuku bt S Manish (TN) 6-1, 6-3; Raghav Jaisinghani (MP) bt Krishna Ankam Teja (AP) 7-6 (3), 6-0; Mayukh Rawat (Utk) bt Hari Singh (Kar) 6-4, 6-1; Rishi Reddy (Kar) bt SM Adithya 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Boys Under-16 singles: Raghav Singhania bt Siddarth Gowda (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Sai Pranav Ponaka (Kar) bt Pralok Ikkruthy (Kar) 6-1, 6-3; Pranash Babu (TN) bt Varun Venkat (Kar) 6-1, 6-0; N Manaz (TN) bt Siddarth Thakan (Ker) 6-4, 6-2.

Girls Under-18 singles: Mahak Jain (Mah) bt Rashmika Rajan (Kar) 6-1, 0-6, 6-3; Sai Dedeepya (AP) bt SB Apoorva 7-5, 6-3; Harsha Sai Challa (AP) bt Diana Abi (TN) 6-1, 6-1; Nikita Pinto (Kar) bt Shikha N Singh (Kar) 6-1, 6-2.

Girls Under-16 singles: Rashmika Rajan bt SB Apoorva (Kar) 6-3, 6-0; Shivani Amineni (AP) bt Nikita Pinto 7-6 (2), 6-2; Rashmika Shrivalli (AP) bt Prathibha Prasad Narayan (Kar) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Shivani Manjanna (Kar) bt Priya Nayak (Kar) 6-1, 6-4.