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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, Oct 27: Unseeded Johann Fernandes showed Delhi's Ankita Bhambri, seeded third, the way out in the girls under-14 group of the Birla Mutual Fund National Sub-junior and mini Tennis Championships at the Practennis courts here.
The first round encounter saw the 11-year-old Johann quell a stiff challenge after her fancied opponent won the second set in the tie-breaker to level scores at one set-all.
Coming back from a four-month lay-off due to jaundice, it was a spirited performance by Johann. Winning the first set 6-4, she could have finished off the tie in straight sets. Johann led the second set tie-breaker at 5-2 but Ankita showed she was third seed for nothing as she rallied to score five successive points and take the set, 7-6.
Not one to be subdued, Johann held sway in the deciding set winning 6-1.
``I could manage only 15 days of practice before the event,'' said the class ninth student of St Teresa's Convent (Santacruz). ``It was unexpected,'' she added braving a smile after the three setbattle.
With fancied players tumbling on day one, the second day results saw much adherence to the seedings.
RESULTS (Prefix denote seedings)
Boys U-16 (first round): Jaco T Mathew bt Jai Arora 6-0, 6-4; Amanjyot Singh bt Vivek Bakuni 6-0, 6-2; 6-Harshad Sharma bt Nikhil Murli 6-1, 6-3; 4-Benzemen Xavier bt Arjun Prakash 6-1, 6-1; Shyam Gala bt AR Anand Kumar 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; K Bhojwani bt Saurabh Sukul 6-0, 1-6, 6-0; 5-Anand Sitaram bt Arvind Prakash 6-3, 6-4; Rohan Gajjar bt 8-Shivang Mishra 6-2, 6-1; Alok Bhide bt Aswin Kiran 6-3, 6-4; Vikrant Sane bt Trish R Rao 6-2, 6-1; 3-Pratim Parikh bt Nishang Mishra 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); C S Mohanti bt Gaurav Kumar 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; Ravi Krishna bt Arif Hyder 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Vivek Jhaveri bt Nipun Gupta 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; 2-Sunil Kumar bt Arpan Lakhani 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
Girls U-14 (first round): Johann Fernandes bt 3-Ankita Bhambri 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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