Kunal eclipses Suraj, wins title

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 12

Delhi’s Kunal Anand halted Suraj R Prabodh’s victory march to win the men’s title on the concluding day of The Tribune State Tennis Championship at the CLTA Complex, Sector 10, here, on Friday.

Sixth seed Kunal, who was awarded a walkover against VM Ranjeet in the semifinals yesterday, looked fresh and used his serve to upset the top seed from Karnataka 6-3 6-4 in the final.

Suraj had prevailed 7-6(7) 2- 6-2 over Delhi’s Jatin Dahiya in the energy sapping last-four contest.  

Twin titles for Samhitha

Top seed Sai Samhitha of Tamil Nadu, though, lived up to her billing as she overcame a jittery start to pack off second seed Humera Shaik of Telangana in the women’s title clash. 

Samhitha was lagging 2-5 before she rallied to seize the opening set in the tie-breaker. The top seed, however, gave no chance to Humera in the second set as she wrapped up the match 7-6(5) 6-2 to claim the title.

The duo later joined hands to beat Dedeepya Sai of Telangana and Uttar Pradesh’s Kaavya Sawhney 6-4 6-1 in the women’s doubles final.

In the men’s doubles final, top seeds Mohit Mayur and Sahil Gaware prevailed 

6-3 6-1 over second seed pair of Ishaque Eqbal and Mohammed Fahad.

Aryan, Riya triumph

Sixth seed Aryan Thakur of Chandigarh, meanwhile, upset city-mate and top seed Abhay Mohan in the boys’ U-16 final.

Thakur lost the opening set 1-6, but came back strongly to win the next two sets 7-5 6-4 to clinch the title. 

Top seed Riya Kaushik of Chandigarh packed off fourth seed Radhika Vasudeva 6-3 6-2 to win the girls’ U-16 title.  

The winners were later awarded by Tribune trustee Gurbachan Jagat, who was the chief guest for the closing ceremony of the tournament. Justice SS Sodhi (retd), also a member of the Tribune Trust was also present on the occasion.