Sheetal and Shruti shocked

Nida, a ninth class student of Convent Jesus and Mary, Karachi, earned sweet revenge over top seed Sheetal Gautam. Despite surrendering the first set and committing as many as eight double faults in the 110-minute encounter, Nida bounced back into the match with vengeance to record a hard-fought 1-6 7-5 6-2 victory over Sheetal, who had defeated her in first round of the Delhi leg last week.

Placing her index finger on her head, Nida later said “I used this (brain) today. Delhi’s defeat had made me stronger. The clay court here also contributed to my success while the competition in Delhi was on the hard courts.”

Nida’s opponent for the crown will be third seed Radhika Tulpule of India who stunned second seed Shruti Dhawan 7-6 (2) 7-6 (4).

Sheetal Gautam and Shruti Dhawan, however, and the consolation of winning the girls doubles crown after a tough fight from second seed Radhika Tulpule and Radhika Mandke 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 in the all-India final.

Results (prefix denotes seeding)

Boys singles (semis): 1-Kedar Tembe (Ind) bt Kedar Shah (Ind) 7-5 4-6 6-3; Nomi Qamar (Pak) bt 6-Vishal Punna (Ind) 6-4 6-4; (Doubles semis): 3-Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind) & Sunil Kumar (Ind) w/o Stephen Nita (Gbr) and Parantap Chaturvedi (Ind).

Girls singles (semis): 7-Nida Waseem (Pak) bt 1-Sheetal Gautam (Ind) 1-6 7-5 6-2; 3-Radhika Tulpule (Ind) bt 2-Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 7-6 (2) 7-6 (4); (Doubles final): 1-Sheetal Gautam & Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt 2-Radhika Tulpule & Radhika Mandke (Ind) 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-0.