Afil, Mahak earn a shot at Jr French Open wildcards

Adil Kalyanpur and Mahak Jain emerged champions in boys and girls divisions respectively in the second edition of 'Rendez-Vous a Roland-Garros in partnership with Longines' at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association here today.

The joint initiative by the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and All India Tennis Association (AITA) saw some of India's top U-18 players in action on the newly laid clay courts at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA).

Both Adil and Mahak earned their tickets to Paris where they will complete against players from Japan, South Korea, China and Brazil for a wild card entry into the Roland Garros Junior (French Open) in May 2016.
 

Adil and Mahak played hard tennis throughout the week and finals were no different. 16-year-old Adil got past Manish Sureshkumar from Tamil Nadu in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

Manish showed some resilience but could not stop Adil from winning the title. After the prize distribution Adil said.

14-year-old Mahak was unstoppable in finals and cruised past Humera Shaik in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Humera has played impressively throughtout the week but Mahak was the better player on the day.

Mahak came into tournament seeded second and she did full justice to it.

Furthering its support to the MOU signed between AITA and FFT last year, AITA had announced wild card entry to the winners into the Delhi Open earlier this week.
Nadal has been struggling to emerge from a long-running crisis of confidence on court, with the 29-year-old now believing that he is back to his normal clay level.

Two French seeds gave the home public what they wanted in the first round, with number nine Richard Gasquet defeating Spain's Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-0 and 13th-seeded Gael Monfils recovering form 2-5 down in the opening set to defeat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-5, 6-0.

Spanish 14th seed Roberto Bautista Agut advanced past compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).

"It was just a break down, 5-2, one break on clay," a relaxed Monfils said.

"Of course, on hard courts it would have been more complicated. But on clay. During the first set I didn't return well, but I was able to improve, I played quite well.

"Little by little I was able to get used to the court and I was able to play a bit higher and find the right angles to make him move.

"I played a solid match - not a great match, but it was a solid one."

German teenager Alexander Zverev continued to impress after holding a match point against Nadal last month at Indian Wells, with the 18-year-old winning his debut match in the principality over longtime junior rival Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-3.

That quick victory in one hour lines up the 54th-ranked Zverev against former Monte Carlo finalist David Ferrer in the second round.

"It's going to be a great match, a great test for me," Zverev said.

"He's one of the toughest competitors on clay. He's been playing great on clay his whole career. He's been a solid top-10 player for 10 years now. It's going to be a great match. I'm looking forward to it."

In other results, Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France beat Guido Pella 6-3, 6-4 to next take on second seed Andy Murray.

Austrian 12th seed Dominic Thiem earned a comeback win over Jan-Lennard Struff 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Canadian tenth seed Milos Raonic put out Marco Cecchinato 6-3, 7-5.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov defeated Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-2 and Pablo Carreno Busta stopped Frenchman Stephane Robert 6-3, 6-1.