The Hindu : Chirashanthi stuns Asha Nandakumar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Chirashanthi stuns Asha Nandakumar

By Our Special Correspondent

MYSORE June 25. The Nandakumar siblings, Kiran Kumar and Asha, met with mixed fortunes in the AITA championship series (under-18), which got underway here on Wednesday.

Second seed Asha Nandakumar, who won the Century Club under-18 title at Bangalore last month, was stunned by local lass R. Chirashanthi 3-6, 2-6 in a tie that lasted 70 minutes, at the Vontikoppal Club courts.

The long limbed Bangalore girl made quite a few errors on her forehand and was easily broken by her rival in the sixth and eighth games of the first set. In the second, though the two traded early breaks, Chitrashanti took control with breaks in the third, seventh and ninth games to seal a memorable win. Chirashanthi, a product of the local Mysore Tennis Club, now moves into quarterfinals.

Later, the big hitting Kiran Kumar who is the No. 2 seed, made short work of Navaneetha Kannan of Tamil Nadu 6-0, 6-1 to make the last eight. Top seed S. Prateek, third seed G. Arjun, fourth seed Rohan Gide, Manu Bajpai, Allan Gomes and wild card Nishendran of Sri Lanka also made quarterfinals.

Nishendran is sure far away from home, but the 15-year-old from Colombo, who is ranked No.2 in the under-18 section in Lanka, was totally at ease on the claycourts of MTC, belting winners on his strong forehand and serving with power as he dismantled the challenge of Hariprashanth of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 6-4.

The fifth seed, R.K. Praveen of Karnataka, was forced to withdraw owing to an ankle injury and his place was taken by lucky loser Sagar G. Kashyap, who however, lost in the first round itself.

The other seeds in the under-18 girls section had a smooth passage to the quarterfinals.

The qualifiers included top seed Vandana Murali of Tamil Nadu, third seed Lodha Shradha of Maharashtra, fourth seed Priya Pachkawade also of Maharashtra, and the fifth seed, Akshita B. Raj of Karnataka, Shravya of AP, Pooja Shetty and V. Poojashree, both of Karnataka.

The Karnataka pairs--V. Pooajshree and R. Chirashanthi, Anushree Thamanna and Pooja Shetty--advanced to the semifinals in the girls doubles.

The results: boys under-18 singles (pre-quarterfinals): S. Prateek (Kar) bt Aniket Ghaskavadi (Mah) 6-2, 6-1; Allen Gomes (Mah) bt Rynold Timothy (Ker) 6-0, 6-2; G. Arjun (Kar) bt Gurusher Singh Harika (Chd) 6-2, 6-3; Mesheer Vaswani (Kar) bt Vijay Siwach (Goa) 6-3, 6-3; Rohan Gide (Mah) bt P.C. Vignesh (AP) 6-3, 6-2; Manu Bajpai (Kar) bt Sujit Sachidanand (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; Nishendran (SL) bt T. Hariprashanth (TN) 6-3, 6-4; N. Kiran Kumar (Kar) bt B. Navaneetha Kannan (TN) 6-0, 6-1.

First round: S. Prateek (Kar) bt Akbar Ali Kamil (Mah) 6-0, 6-0; Aniket Gharkandri (Mah) bt Amulya Chandra (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; Rynold Timothy (Ker) bt C. Praveen (Kar) 6-3, 6-1; Allen Gomes (Mah) bt Sagar G. Kashyap (Kar) 6-2, 6-1; G. Arjun (Kar) bt Sujay V. Reddy (Kar) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Gurusher S. Harika (Chd) bt Manish Rao (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; Vijay Siwach (Goa) bt T.S. Pradeep (Kar) 2-6, 6-4, 6-1; Mesheer Vaswani (Kar) bt Pranav Anand (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Nishendran (SL) bt S. Vijaykumar (Kar) 6-1, 7-6(3); M. Hariprashanth (TN) bt Ankit Patel (Mah) 6-2, 6-3; P.C. Vignesh (AP) bt Bruhath V. Raker (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; Rohan Gidde (Mah) bt Suraj Bikkannavar (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Sujith Sachidanand (Kar) bt V.V. Anurag (AP) 6-2,6-4; B. Navaneetha Kannan (TN) bt Nikunj Siwach (Goa) 6-3, 6-2; N. Kiran Kumar (Kar) bt Kaushik S. Raju (Kar) 6-3, 7-5; Manu Bajpai (Kar) bt Nityesh Nataraj (TN) 6-4, 7-5.

Girls undr-18 singles (pre-quarterfinals): M.R. Chirashanthi (Kar) bt Asha Nandakumar (Kar) 6-3, 6-2; Vandana Murali (TN) bt Anushree Thammanna (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; T. Shravya (AP) bt Likitha Devaraj (Kar) 6-3, 6-0; Pooja Shetty (Kar) bt G.V. Usha (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Lodha Shradda (Mah) bt Amoolya Raghunath (Kar) 7-5, 6-1; Akshitha B. Raj (Kar) bt Shubha A. Chakrala (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; V. Poojashree (Kar) bt Yamini Alla (AP) 6-2, 6-0; Priya Pachkawde (Mah) bt D. Harshini Reddy (Kar) 6-0, 6-0. First round: Shubha A. Chakrala (Kar) bt D. Shravanthi (Kar) 6-1, 6-1.

Girls doubles: (quarterfinals): V. Poojashree/R. Chirashanthi (Kar) bt Yamini Alla/T. Shravya (AP) 6-1, 6-0; Anushree Thamanna/Pooja Shetty (Kar) bt Akshitha B. Raj/Amoolya Raghunath (Kar) 6-3, 7-6(5).

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