Nikita stumbles at final hurdle

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, january 12

Sixth seed Holly Fischer halted Nikita Vishwase’s impressive run to win the girls’ singles title on the concluding day of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors Tournament at the CLTA Complex, Sector 10, here, on Saturday. The Briton prevailed 6-4 6-1 over her Indian counterpart in the final.

Nikita and Holly held their respective serve to make it three-all before the sixth seed broke the Indian in the eighth game to seal the opening set 6-4. She then dumped Nikita 6-1 in the second set to claim the top spot.

Stijn goes past Raphael

In the men’s singles competition, second seed Stijn Pel of the Netherlands overcame a resilient Raphael Collignon of Belgium to return home with the trophy. 

Both the players started off on a positive note and held their respective serve to force the opening set into the tie breaker. The Dutch took 6-3 lead, but Collignon played well to make it six-all. The duo was battling at eight-all in the tie breaker when Pel won successive points to finally close the set 7-6(8).

The second set was no different, but it was the Belgian who took the initial lead in the tie breaker. Pel, though, held his nerve and seized the set 7-6(4) to win the final.

CLTA president Jai Singh Gill, in company of chief operation officer Reet Mohinder Singh and Megh Raj, later distributed the prizes among the winners.