Simran Kaur Sethi: Star attraction at the ITF Tennis Juniors

Simran Kaur Sethi will be the star attraction in the ITF Grade-4 junior tennis tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex here from Monday. Simran, however, may have a tough opening as the top seed in the girls’ section against qualifier Nandini Sharma. Nandini had made the semifinals of the event last week in Guwahati.

The strength of the field, as much as the unpredictability at the junior level, could be gleaned from the fact that Jennifer Luikham, who had made the final in both singles and doubles last week, lost in the second round of the qualifying event to unranked Renu Sharma in three sets.

The presence of Dhruthi Venugopal, Vaanti Shinde, Karman Kaur and Vanshika Sawhney should make it a lively affair in the girls’ event, which will also have two seeded players from Egypt, Habiba Lasheen and Nermeen Shawky apart from Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva of Uzbekistan.

In the boys section, it will be a good chance for fourth seed B. R. Nikshep to establish his strong game. He may run into top-seeded Kennosuke Nouchi of Japan in the semifinals.

The seedings:

Boys: 1. Kennosuke Nouchi (Jpn); 2. Venkata Gnana Bhaskar; 3. Chak Pong Marco Lam (Hkg); 4. B.R. Nikshep; 5. Vidit Vaghela; 6. Aditya Deswal; 7. Arjun Ramakrishnan; 8. Nishangan Nadaraja (Sri).

Girls: 1. Simran Kaur Sethi; 2. Dhruthi Venugopal; 3. Habiba Lasheen (Egy); 4. Nermeen Shawky (Egy); 5. Vasanti Shinde; 6. Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva (Uzb); 7. Karman Kaur Thandi; 8. Vanshika Sawhney.

The results:

Qualifying: Boys: Third and final round: Param Pun bt Shrey Gupta 6-1, 7-6(2); Yash Yadav bt Abhimanyu Dakwale 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; Taha Kapadia bt Anav Vadehra 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3; Manav Pondkule bt Udayan Bhakar 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Second round: Udayan bt John Paul Avila 6-4, 6-3.

Girls: Third and final round: Xeniya Prokopchuk (Ukr) bt Aarushi Kakkar 6-0, 6-1; Moulika Ram bt Eeshita Pande 6-3, 6-1; Nandini Sharma bt Renu Sharma 5-7, 6-4, 6-2; Rashmitha Pasula Reddy bt Ainur Suleimenova (Kaz) 6-3, 7-6(3).

Second round: Xeniya bt Mansi Reddy Siddareddy 6-3, 7-6(2); Aarushi bt Avika Sagwal 7-6(6), 6-1; Eeshita bt Abhilasha Vishwanath 6-2, 6-1; Moulika bt Nupur Umashankar 6-4, 6-2; Renu bt Jennifer Luikham 7-5, 4-6, 6-1; Nandini bt Ananya Mahapatra 6-4, 7-6(4); Rashmitha bt Anupreet Bedi 6-0, 6-4; Ainur bt Tanasha Khandpur 6-1, 7-6(0).