The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Venkat, Kyra clinch titles

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Sunday, Jan 28, 2007
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Venkat, Kyra clinch titles

NEW DELHI: Venkat Iyer and Kyra Shroff did not drop a set between them on way to winning the boys' and girls' singles titles respectively in the ITF grade `IV' junior tennis tournament in Bangladesh on Friday.

The 15-year-old Venkat outplayed Jae-Beom Kim of Korea 6-3, 6-2 in the final to win his maiden singles title at this level.

The player with an all-round game who has recently joined coach Prahlad Srinath at the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy (MBTA) in Bangalore had given a hint about his ability by reaching the semifinals of the grade `II' tournament in Delhi.

Venkat had beaten compatriot Karunuday Singh for the loss of two games in the semifinals in Bangladesh. The only tough match he had was against Jeong-Han Seo of Korea in the quarterfinals when he prevailed 7-5, 6-2.

Venkat and Christopher Marquis lost in the doubles semifinals 4-6, 1-6 to the Koreans Jae-Beom Kim and Jeong-Han Seo.

Christopher was the other Indian boy to do well in singles and he went down fighting 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-7(4) in the semifinals to Jae-Beom Kim.

Second crown

For the 14-year-old Kyra Shroff, the National junior champion, it was the second singles title in the ITF circuit, following her triumph in Chennai. In fact, she did not drop a set in the whole tournament then as well.

Kyra beat Nigora Sirojiddinova of Uzbekistan 6-3, 6-1 in the final. She dropped only 12 games in five rounds in the tournament. — Special Correspondent

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