MUMBAI, November 4: Unseeded Isha Lakhani of Mumbai created a major upset beating third seed Jitisha Shelarka 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) to enter the girls (U-14) semifinals of the AITA West Zone junior tennis tournament at the Practennis courts, here today.

It was another fine performance by the 12-year-old Isha who is quickly earning the reputation of a giant killer.

Yesterday she upstaged Nikhita Bhardwaj who had won the Master's tournament in New Delhi.

With the scores at 2-3 in a taut first set, the game reached deuce as many as six times before a wayward backhand by Jitisha lost her a crucial point and the game.

Isha took over from there, winning the next two games to clinch the first set 6-2.

Jitisha came back strongly into the second set as the match went into the tie-breaker. Isha won a battle of nerves 7-5 to seal the match. Isha now meets second-seed Lisa Pereira in the semifinals. Lisa outgunned Aditi Karanjkar 6-7 (7-5), 6-0, 6-1.

The top seven seeds entered the quarter-finals of the boys under-14 group. The only unseeded player to reach the last eight is Karan Rastogi who had upset eighth-seed Sujai Mahadevan in the first round, yesterday. Today he beat Aditya Subbu 6-0, 6-1.

It was a repeat peformance by the top-seeds in the u-16 group. In the boys section Kedar Tembe had an easy win over Devesh Podar 6-0, 6-1 while Radhika Tulpule crushed Rati Kumar 6-4, 6-0.

Results

Boys' u-16 (QFs): Kedar Tambe bt Devesh Podar 6-0, 6-1; Nilesh Saldana bt Abdin Shyam 6-3, 6-4; A Muzumdar bt A Joglekar 6-3, 6-2; Alok Bhide bt Rohan Dalvi 6-2, 6-4; K Bhojwani bt Vivek Jhaveri 2-6, 6-3, 6-1; Rohan Gajjar bt A Lakhani 7-5, 7-5; Jai Arora bt Meeraj Anand 6-4, 6-1; Dipesh Rao bt Akshay Tanna 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

U-14: Rohan Gajjar bt Trishu R Rao 6-4, 6-3; G Pernandes bt K Gujrati 6-0, 6-1; Ankit Doshi bt Devesh Podar 6-1, 6-2; Karan Rastogi bt Aditya Subbu 6-0, 6-1; Krishna Tanna bt Mehul Kamdar 6-0, 6-3; Vivek Jhaveri bt Jay Mehta 6-0, 6-2; Brijesh Lodha bt Amit Karunakaran 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Vikrant Sane bt Rishi Behl 6-0, 6-1.

Girls: U-16 (QFs): Radhika Tulpule bt Rati Kumar 6-4, 6-0; Lisa Pereira bt Johan Fernandes 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Sonia Shelar bt Nikhita Bhardwaj 6-0, 6-2; Sonal Phadke bt Jitisha Shelarka 6-3, 6-3.

U-14: Megha Vakharia bt Rati Kumar 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; Johan Fernandes bt Deepa Chakraborty 6-3, 7-5; Isha Lakhani bt Jitisha Shelarka 6-2, 7-6 (7-5); Lisa Pereria bt A Karanjkar 6-7 (7-5), 6-0, 6-1.

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