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Rashien triumphs

BANGALORE: Rashein Samuel capped his good run in the KIMS-AITA Talent Series junior tennis championship with title triumph in the boys’ under-18 singles at the KIMS courts here on Friday.

In a final, which was engrossing in patches, Rashien Samuel, defeated Sagar Manjunath 7-5, 6-4 in 100 minutes for his maiden title in the under-18 ranks.

The two unseeded players from Karnataka slugged it out from their baseline. Rashien, who had better control, ran up an 5-2 lead in the opening set before Sagar fought back.

Sagar squared it to 5-all with Rashien making quite a few unforced errors. In the 11th game, however, Rashien tightened his grip with two stinging forehand returns, seized the advantage and broke his rival again for a 6-5 lead and then served out the set.

In the second set, Sagar broke Rashien in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead. He, however, squandered the lead with few loose shots and Rashien charged right back and took four games in a row to grab the match.

The second seed, Rachana R. Gowda of Mysore prevailed over the top seed, Padmpriya, 6-3, 6-3 in the girls’ under-18 singles.

Nikhil Reddy outplayed Suraj Prabodh 6-0, 6-2 to bag the boys’ under-14 singles title. The second seed Preethi Ujjini won the girls’ under-14 singles title with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over the top seed S.P. Ritu.

The results (all finals):

Boys: Under-18: Rashien Samuel bt Sagar Manjunath 7-5, 6-4; U-14: Nikhil Reddy bt Suraj Prabodh 6-0, 6-2.

Girls: U-18: Rachana R. Gowda bt Padmapriya 6-3, 6-3. U-14: Preethi Ujjini bt S.P. Ritu 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. — Special Correspondent

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