Mansingh Athare lived to fight another day as he got past a cramping Chinese third seed Gao Xin 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian junior tennis championship at the R. K. Khanna Stadium here on Thursday.
The Chinese was sailing to victory at 4-1 in the decider, but a severe bout of cramps put paid to his hopes. He called the trainer on a couple of times, but it proved inadequate. In fact, he had to be warned for time violation, and was slapped a string of point and game penalties that saw him eventually lose a point every 20 seconds.
Gao Xin was brave enough continue with the match and even tried unsuccessfully to serve underarm. Athare, who had problems only with the inadequate floodlights on the centre court — only 32 of the 96 bulbs were on, and there was too much shadow near the net — was lucky to pull through, thanks to his superior fitness.
Talented player
A talented player who realised that he had to handle the Chinese tactically rather than with power after the first set, Athare will meet compatriot, the sixth-seeded Vaidik Munshaw in the quarterfinals.
Ronit Bisht fought his way past Shabaaz Khan in three sets to set up a quarterfinal against Ouyang Bowen of China.
The fourth-seeded Sai Karthik cruised in the second set after being stretched to the tie-break in the first by Chi-Shan Jao of Chinese Taipei.
He will be challenged by Warit Sornbutnark of Thailand who was stretched to three sets by Sumeet Shinde.
Rakshay Thakkar got past the seventh-seeded Kaichi Uchida of Japan in three sets to set up a clash with the top-seeded Wang Chuhan of China.
In the girls section, Rishika Sunkara was the only Indian to make the quarterfinals, and did so in style in straight sets at the expense of Yang Zhaoxuan of China. Rishika will match the top-seeded Eri Hozumi of Japan.
The finalist last week, Kyra Shroff bowed to the fifth-seeded Zhu Lin of China and national champion Ankita Raina found the fourth-seeded Yang Zi too hot to handle.
The results (pre-quarterfinals): Boys: Wang Chuhan (Chn) bt Rishabhdev Raman 6-3, 7-5; Rakshay Thakkar bt Kaichi Uchida (Jpn) 7-5, 3-6, 6-4; Sai Karthik bt Chi-Shan Jao (Tpe) 7-6(4), 6-1; Warit Sornbutnark (Tha) bt Sumeet Shinde 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Vaidik Munshaw bt Saurabh Singh 6-3, 6-2; Mansingh Athare bt Gao Xin (Chn) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Ronit Bisht bt Shabaaz Khan 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-2; Ouyang Bowen (Chn) bt Siddharth Rawat 6-1, 6-1.
Girls: Eri Hozumi (Jpn) bt Adnya Naik 6-2, 6-1; Rishika Sunkara bt Yang Zhaoxuan (Chn) 6-2, 7-5; Yang Zi (Chn) bt Ankita Raina 6-3, 6-1; Miho Kowase (Jpn) bt Naptakorn Sankaew (Tha) 7-5, 2-6, 6-1; Zhu Lin (Chn) bt Kyra Shroff 6-4, 6-4; Miyu Kato (Jpn) bt Li-Yun Stefanie Tan (Sin) 6-4, 6-4; Sabina Sharipova (Uzb) bt Natasha Palha 7-5, 6-3; Tian Ran (Chn) bt Sharon Paul 6-2, 6-0.
