U16 Tennis: Vipasha powers past 4th seed Sanya into semis

VipashaMehra of Maharashtra put up a gallant display to knock aside fourth-seeded Sanya Singh in a marathon girls' singles quarter-final match of the MSLTA- Yonex Sunrise 12th Ramesh Desai Memorial CCI All India Nationals Under-16 (boys & girls) Tennis Tournament.

Ranked 63rdon the AITA ranking list, Pune-based Vipasha, who had defeated eighth seed Gargi Pawar in the previous round, produced another gutsy performance against Sanya in three sets, winning 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) in a little over four hours, at CCI here, a media release said.

Meanwhile, second seeds Udit Gogoi of Assam and Prerna Vichare of Maharashtra smoothly progressed to the boys and girls' singles semi-finals, respectively, it added.

The Assam youngster, Udit, number five on the AITA ranking list, charged past his 99thranked opponent Nishant Dabas of Delhi, winning 6-1, 6-3.

In the girls' singles quarter-final encounter, the AITA third rank, Prerna, dropped just one game as she went on to record a crushing 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Uttar Pradesh's 16th ranked Vanshika Choudhary.

In the penultimate round, Prerna will clash with Sudipta Senthil Kumar who prevailed over Telangana's Sanjana Sirimalla in straight sets.

Maharashtra girl Sudipta showed more consistency and managed to pull off a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Meanwhile, in an interesting boys' singles match, fourth seed Divesh Gahlot of Haryana showed solid fighting qualities as he rallied from a set down to overcomeseventh seed Dhruv Tangri (PB) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 to make the semi-finals.

Results: Girls' singles (quarter-finals): Sandeepti Rao (HR) bt 9-Sharanya Gaware (MH) 6-3, 6-1; Q-Vipasha Mehra (MH) bt 4-Sanya Singh (MH) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5); Sudipta Senthil Kumar (MH) bt Sanjana Sirimalla (TS) 6-4, 6-4;2-Prerna Vichare (MH) bt 12-Vanshika Choudhary (UP) 6-1, 6-0.

Boys' singles (quarter-finals):Mohit Bondre (GJ) bt Naresh Badgujar (CH) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; 3-Sushant Dabas (HR) bt Sammr Raina (DL) 6-3, 7-6(3); 4-Divesh Gahlot (HR) bt 7-Dhruv Tangri (PB) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2; 2-Udit Gogoi (AS) bt Nishant Dabas (DL) 6-1, 6-3.