B.R. Nikshep and Vanshika Sawhney emerged the under-16 boys and girls champions respectively in the Fenesta National sub-junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.
It was graduation for the two champions as both had won the under-14 title in the last edition at the same venue. Incidentally, both had won the doubles title as well.
To top it, both train with coach Aditya Sachdeva at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in the Capital. The top-seeded Nikshep, a 11th standard student of Surana College in Bangalore, overcame the wiry Udayan Bhakar in three sets.
Vanshika Sawhney ran every ball down in a tough contest that often looked like a training drill against Ramya Natarajan to clinch the girls under-16 title. Nitin Kumar Sinha, trained by Gary O’Brien, was a class act as he outplayed Yugal Bansal for the under-14 boys title.
The president of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Anil Khanna, and the Chairman of DSCL, Ajay Shriram, inspired the players with their encouraging speech, and presented the prizes.
The results: Boys: Under-16: B.R. Nikshep bt Udayan Bhakar 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Under-14: Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Yugal Bansal 6-3, 6-2..
Girls: Under-16: Vanshika Sawhney bt Ramya Natarajan 7-5, 6-2. Under-14: Mihika Yadav bt Ramya Natarajan 6-3, 6-2. — Special Correspondent
