Vikram eyes u-14 title

Little Saana Bhambri (Del), barely twice the height of the racquet she wields, gave top seed C Nandita (TN) a scare in the girls’ under-16 semis before succumbing. Saana, who lost in the under-14 final at Bangalore, lead 4-1 in the second set before Nandita drew level.

The imaginative Delhi girl, playing bold drop shots with gay abandon atcrucial points, saved five match points before Nandita put away an overhead to breathe easy and make the final with the 6-2, 6-4 win. Samrata Sekhar, 7-5, 6-2 winner over seed hacker Johann Fernandes (Mah), joins Nandita.

C S Mohanty (Del) played another marathon to pip second seed Harshit Sharma (WB) 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 for a place in the under-16 boys’ final. Sharma dropped two game points on serve at 5-5 in the second set — one with a double fault — to let Mohanty off the hook. Joining Mohanty in the summit clash is Pratim Parekh (Mah), a 6-2, 6-3 winner over an erratic Rohan Gajjar (Mah).

Results (all semi-finals)

Boys’ under-16: Pratim Parekh (Mah) bt Rohan Gajjar (Mah) 6-2, 6-3; C S Mohanty (Del) bt Harshit Sharma (WB) 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

Under-14: Sujay Mahadevan (Mah) bt P Vikas (AP) 6-3, 6-1; Vikram Aditya Menon (TN) bt Saurabh Kohli (Mah) 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

Girls’ under-16: C Nandita (TN) bt Saana Bhambri (Del) 6-2, 6-4; Samrata Sekhar (TN) bt Johann Fernandes (Mah) 7-5, 6-2.

Under-14 LataAsudani (Mah) bt Krushmi Chedda (Mah) 6-2, 6-1; Deepa Chakraborty (Guj) bt Nivedita Venkatesh (TN) 6-1, 6-1.

Final line-up: Boys under-16: Parekh vs Mohanty.

Under-14:

Mahadevan vs Menon. Girls’ under-16:

Nandita vs Samrata.

Under-14: Lata Asudani vs Deepa C.

Maharashtra State Ranking results (all semi-finals)

Boys’ under-12: Krishank Shah bt Arnav Jain 6-2, 6-2; Siddharth Chheda bt Rishikesh Pataskar 7-5, 6-3.

Under-10: Arnav Jain bt Ankesh Bhargava 9-1; Agnel Gladwin bt Tejas Chouglekar 9-0.