Prinkle crashes, Rishabh eases into quarters

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16 

Top seed Prinkle Singh bowed to Maharashtra’s Sharanya Garware in straight sets to make an early exit, even as third seed Rishab Sharda of Chandigarh got the better of Tamil Nadu’s VM Sandeep to enter the boys’ quarterfinals in the ongoing MCC Junior (U-18) National Clay Court Championship in Chennai on Thursday.

Prinkle, who overcame Bhakti Shah 6-2 5-7 6-2 to seal a spot in the last 16 on Wednesday, hardly found her rhythm and succumbed to Sharanya 6-4 6-2.  

Sarah Dev and Kaavya Sawhney also lost their pre-quarterfinal matches to crash out of the tournament. While Sarah lost 3-6 3-6 to Telangana’s Smirti Bhasin, second seed Kaavya bowed to Karnataka’s Prathiba Prasad Narayan 6-7(4) 2-6 in the pre-quarterfinals. 

However, it was good day in the office for Chandigarh boys. While Rishab Sharda registered a 6-4 6-3 win over VM Sandeep, second seed Calvin Golmei humbled Sai Karthik Reddy Ganta of Telangana 7-6(3) 6-4 to enter the last-eight stage of the championship. 

Haryana’s Jagtar Arora downed Krish Patel of Gujarat 6-2 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals. Another Haryana player, Divesh Gahlot beat state mate Ajay Malik 6-2 6-1 to stay alive in the competition.  

Krishan Hooda of Haryana lost 3-6 2-6 to Madhya Pradesh’s Denim Yadav, while Sushant Dabas went down fighting to Nikit M Reddy of Andhra Pradesh. Dabas lost the opening set 3-6, but came back into the match with a 6-4 win in the second set. He, however, lost the decider 4-6 to bid an early adieu.       

Top seed Megh Bhargav Kumar Patel of Gujarat came through in three sets against Atharva Sharma of Maharashtra. Patel was in good form but a lapse of concentration saw him drop the second set before recovering to win the decider.