Megha, Mayura in line for double

MUMBAI, January 16: Mayura Bandekar put up a spirited display to beat second seed Johan Fernandes 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2 in the girls' under-16...

MUMBAI, January 16: Mayura Bandekar put up a spirited display to beat second seed Johan Fernandes 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2 in the girls’ under-16 semi-finals of the Chembur Gymkhana Open State-ranking Tournament, here, today.

Johan, down 1-4 in the opening set, took five games in a row to lead 5-4. But serving for the set, she dropped her serve to find herself on level terms at 5-5. Johan broke yet again in the 11th but dropped serve in the 12 to find the issue going into the tie-breaker.

Mayura won the tie-break, lost the second set but played a tight decider to upset her fancied rival.

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Mayura convincingly won her under-14 semi-final against K Saumya to put herself in line for a double. In both the finals, her rival will be Megha Vakharia. The latter, the top seed in both categories, conceded just three games in each of her semi-final matches today to make the final grade.

In an interesting boys’ under-12 semi-final, second seed Akshay C was taken the distance by Devang Shah before winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in a 90-minute battle. Akshay will meet No 1 seed Keshavan Narasimhan, who beat Krishank Shah 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.

RESULTS (all semi-finals)

Boys’ under-14: Ankit Doshi bt Saurabh Kohli 6-1, 6-2; Sujay Mahadevan bt Krishna Tanna 6-2, 6-3.

Boys’ u-12: Aksay C bt Devang Shah 6-2, 4-6, 6-1; Kesavan Narasimhan bt Krishank Shah 6-3, 6-3.

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Girls’ u-16: Megha Vakharia bt Medini Sharma 6-2, 6-1; Mayura Bandekar bt Johan Fernandes 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2.

Girls’ u-14: Megha Vakharia bt Johan Fernandes 6-2, 6-1; Mayura Bandekar bt K Saumya 6-2, 6-0

Gurunath grabs lead

Chennai’s Gurunath took the lead on the second day of the Classic Stripes Western India Amateur Golf Championship at the BPGC today. He returned with a round of 70, firing five birdies in all, to aggregate 142 after 36 holes of the 72-hole stroke-play event.

Gurunath is followed by Jaideep Patwardhan (Pune) who also parred the course and is on 144 along with overnight leader Digvijay Singh (Meerut). The latter had a poor 76. Fancied Harmeet Kahlon seemed to have found his rythym today to aggregate 148 after a poor 78 yesterday.