Manish, Nikshep enter semis; Simran loses

Chennai lad S Manish, a qualifier, put up a sterling performance to enter the semifinals of the of the boys singles in the MCC-Adidas Junior National tennis championships 2014 at the Madras Cricket Club courts here today.
Top seed Nikshep BP from Karnataka also posted a comfortable win to move into the last four stage of the boys singles, but in the girls section the top three seeds -- Simran Kaur Seth, Vanshika Sawhney and Maharashtra's Devanshi Bhimjiyani -- crashed out of the Championships.
Manish outplayed Raghav Jai Singhani of Madhya Pradesh in the quarterfinals in straight sets and will next meet ninth seeded Vasisht Vinod Cheruka of Karnataka in the semifinals.

Vasisht lost the first set but fought back in the next two sets to get the better of Basil Kuma in another quarterfinal clash.
Nikshep played well to oust Manav Pondkole in straight sets. He will take on 15th seeded Nitin Kumar Sinha of West Bengal in the semifinals.
A talented player, Nitin scored a comprehensive win over Venkat Gnana Bhasker of Andhra Pradesh.

In the girls section, it was a day of upsets as Simran lost to Sathwika Sama of Andhra Pradesh in straight sets. While Simran was out of sorts from the beginning and could never recover, to Sama's credit, she kept playing a steady game to wrap up the match 6-4 6-2 and make the last four stage.

The results (all quarter-finals):
Boys singles: 1-Nikshep BR (Kar) bt 8-Manav N Pondkule (Mah) 6-3, 7-6 (3); 15-Nitin Kumar Sinha (WB) bt 4-Venkata Gnana Bhaskar (AP) 6-2, 6-3; 9-Vasisht Vinod Cheruka (Kar) bt13- Basil L Khuma (WB) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4; Q-S Manish (TN) bt Q-Raghav Jai Singhani (MP) 6-0, 7-5.
Girls singles: 15-Sathwika Sama (AP) bt 1-Simran Kaur Seth (Del) 6-4, 6-2; 9-Abinikka R (TN) bt 3-Devanshi Bhimjiyani (Mah) 6-3, 6-2; 4-Zeel Desai (Guj) bt Rishika Ravi (TN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; 16-Ramya Natarajan (TN) bt 2-Vanshika Sawhney (Del) 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2.