The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Kyra Shroff upsets Parija Maloo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 15, 2006
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Kyra Shroff upsets Parija Maloo

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: Wild card Kyra Shroff worked her way to a 6-3, 6-3 win over top-seed Parija Maloo in the girls' quarterfinals of the Wilson-TTT International Tennis Federation junior (under-18) tournament here on Thursday.

Parija's strengths are her return of serves and an ability to find sharp angles from the baseline. On her part, Kyra ground it out — moon-balling whenever the situation demanded it and retrieving well, forcing Parija to go for too much, eliciting errors on crucial points.

The first four games of the first set saw Kyra hustle Parija, running hard and putting the ball back on to the court. Soon, the scoreboard read 4-0 in Kyra's favour. Parija managed to get one break back in the fifth game. But Kyra didn't have any problem in serving out the first set at 5-3.

The second set followed a similar pattern. After failing to convert a break point in the sixth game, Parija conceded the seventh and ninth games to lose the match.

In the girls' section, all the seeded players bowed out except Kelsey Sundaram of USA, the fifth seed.

A.S. Suresh Krishna put paid to the hopes of Allan Gomes, the second seed, winning 6-1, 6-3 in the boys' category. Totally outplayed from the backcourt, Allan Gomes did, however, make a fight out of it, coming back from 4-1 down to 4-3 in the second set. Up 30-0 in the eighth game, Gomes committed two double faults to lose the game.

In an engrossing two hour and five minute contest, fifth seed Priyank Gangadharan outlasted Mohammed Fariz 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. Fariz lost from a position of strength. Serving for the match at 5-3, Fariz lost the game at love. In the next three games, Priyank was so dominant that Fariz could take just one point.

Priyank is the only remaining seed in the boys' section. Qualifier Mansingh Athare continued his fine run with an authoritative 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Sriram Balaji in an hour and 58 minutes.

The results (quarterfinals): Girls: Kyra Shroff bt Parija Maloo 6-3, 6-3; T. Nilaya bt Nimisha Mohan 7-6 (10), 6-0; Kelsey Sundaram bt Prerna Bhambri 7-5, 6-1; Rashmi Teltumbde bt Haruka Naito 6-3, 6-3. Boys: Priyank Gangadharan bt Mohammed Fariz 6-2, 2-6, 7-5; Ankit Sachdeva bt Prateek Bhambri 6-1, 6-2; Mansingh Athare bt Sriram Balaji 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; A.S. Suresh Krishna bt Allan Gomes 6-1, 6-3.