In the end, Radhika kept her equanimity under hot conditions to book a berth in the quarter-finals of the IOB-MCC National junior tennis championship on Wednesday.

With all the seeds in the boys' section finishing their matches on Tuesday, it was left to unseeded players and qualifiers to slog it out for a pre-quarterfinal spot. Kedar Shah (Mah), Vijay Rajagopal and N Mukundan were stretched the full distance, before emerging victorious.

Top seed Uzma Khan, who struggled for most part of her match in the first round, found her wonted form and adjusted to the new balls which was troubling many players on the first day to dismiss Maharashtra's Liza Perrira for the loss of just two games.

In the afternoon session as the sun was out in full splendour, Radhika Tulpule, the fourth seed from Maharashtra,quickly jumped into a 5-0 lead against team-mate Sonia Shellar with incisive forehands. Her opponent managed to win a game before losing the set.

After breaking Shellar early in the second set, it looked like a formality for Tulpule, but Shellar didn't give up and neutralised at 3-3. Tulpule broke her again and served for the match at 5-4. An indifferent game from Tulpule kept her opponent's hopes alive.

However, Shellar's body language and her play in the next game which she lost tamely showed she had given up her hopes early or it might also have been due to the stifling heat.

Harsimran Kaur of Chandigarh, who pulled off a big upset sending second seed Gautam Sheetal home on Tuesday, continued her good form with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Debosmita (West Bengal) to enter the quarter-finals.

Results: Girls (pre-quarterfinals): 1-Uzma Khan (AP) bt Liza Perrira (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; 3-Shruthi Dhawan bt Sandya Kanuri (TN) 6-1, 6-4; T Yamini (TN) bt Samrita Sekar (TN) 6-1, 6-3; Vishnu Preetham(TN) bt B Nischella (AP) 7-5, 1-6, 6-3; SK Tara (Kar) bt Geeta Manohar (AP) 6-0, 6-4; Harsimran Kaur (Chd) bt Debosmita M (WB) 6-2, 6-2; 4-Radhika Tulpule (Mah) bt Sonia Shellar (Mah) 6-1, 7-5; Radhika Mandke (Mah) bt Pooja Deshmukh (MP) 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4.

Boys (1st round): Anant Sitaram (AP) bt Jaidev Punjabi (Kar) 7-5, 7-5; Uday Kumar Reddy (TN) bt Sajit Lodi (MP) 6-0, 6-1; Kedar Shah (Mah) bt C Mohanty (Dli) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2; Vijay Rajagopal (TN) bt Sunil Kumar (Chd) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; Akshay Vishal Rao (Chd) bt Harshit Sharma (WB) 6-4, 6-2; Akshay Jagdale (Mah) bt Abishek Jagnani (WB) 6-3, 6-2; N Mukundan (TN) bt Vinod Kumar Seva (WB) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.