January 18: Favourites asserted their supremacy in no uncertain terms on the final day of the Chembur Gymkhana Open State-ranking Tennis Tournament. At the Gymkhana courts on Sunday, fifth seed Gaurav Kumar overpowered Pune's Anikit Joglekar 6-0, 6-1 in the boys' under-16 category while top seed Megha Vakharia registered a creditable double by beating Mayura Bandekar 6-3, 6-0 in the girls' under-16 title clash.The start of the one-sided finals commenced with the boys under-12 final in which top-seed Keshav Narasimhan beat Akshay Chellappa 6-1, 6-3.
Keshav, who is the nephew of former national champion Nandini Rangaranjan, broke his rival thrice in the 18-minute first set with some consistent play. Though the top seed took a 3-1 lead in the second set, Akshay had a chance to come on level terms when he executed two splendid down the line returns to hold an advantage-point in his favour in the eighth game. Akshay missed the chance, got broken in the next to lose the game, set and match.
For sheer
quality, it was Gaurav's all round play which was most impressive on the finals day action. The tall FYJC student of Sydenham College, used his physical advantages profitably. He served with power and consistency and exploded winners on either flanks with a wonderful variety of punchy groundstrokes.
Joglekar could do precious little against the power play of his opponent and got his first and only game of the match when he won the second game of the second set by holding serve. Megha Vakharia won the girls' under-14 yesterday beating Mayura Bandekar. Today she provided an encore by conceding a game less than on the penultimate day. The only time Mayura looked like putting up a fight when she got her only break of the match in the seventh game of the second set.
RESULTS (all finals with seedings in prefix):
Boys' under-16 singles: 5-Gaurav Kumar bt Anikit Joglekar 6-0, 6-1Boys' under-12 singles: 1-Keshav Narasimhan bt Akshay Chellappa 6-1, 6-3.Girls' under-16 singles: 1-Megha Vakharia bt Mayura
Bandekar 6-3, 6-0.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
