Vasisht Vinod Cheruku of Karnataka and Zeel Desai of Gujarat were crowned boys’ and girls’ champions at the adidas-MCC National junior under-18 tennis championships here on Saturday.
While Zeel’s was a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win over Tamil Nadu’s R. Abinikka, Vasisht had to dig deep and overcome a second-set comeback by West Bengal’s Nitin Kumar Sinha.
Vasisht dominated the first set, winning it 6-2, by often using his powerful serve to set up points and finishing them off with impressive forehands. A visible drop in intensity in the second hurt him as Nitin clawed his way back.
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His penchant for forehands, in particular the inside-out one, continued, but they landed well within his opponent’s reach. A solitary break in the fifth game was enough for Nitin to land the set 6-3.
However, Vasisht broke in the first game of the third set and then raced to a 4-0 lead. This effectively ended Nitin’s defence as the Karnataka lad won it 6-1.
In the girls’ final, but for two passages of play — early in the first set when Abinikka broke twice and late in the second when she pulled a break back — Zeel was in control. She prolonged rallies, often settling into long crosscourt exchanges, forced Abinikka to go for winners and induced errors. The local girl paid dearly for them like the three unforced errors while serving at 4-5 to lose the first set.
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After Zeel surged ahead 5-0 in the second, she suffered a minor hiccup by losing serve once. But a quick recovery helped her wrap up the match.
The results (finals): Boys: Singles: Vasisht Vinod Cheruku (Kar) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha (WB) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Girls: Zeel Desai (Guj) bt R. Abinikka (TN) 6-4, 6-2.