E-Paper
Junior champions series tennis: Nanded’s Samruddhi lifts under-14 title
Playing a patient game in tie-breaker helps Samruddhi Bhosale overcome Devanshee Prabhudesai 4-2, 5-4 (7-4)
For the love of tennis, Smaruddhi Bhosale keeps on travelling from Nanded to Pune and vice versa. This is her routine for all the 12 months and it has bear her fruit this time as she claimed under-14 title defeating Devanshee Prabhudesai 4-2, 5-4 (7-4) on Thursday.
For Nanded based player – Bhosale it turned out to be a tricky final in PMDTA-KPIT junior champions series tennis tournament at the Center For Police Research ground, Pashan as her opponent Prabudeshai from Pune fought bravely before going down in tie-breaker.
“In the first set I completely controlled the game right from the start but coming on to the second set I lost my focus a bit and that’s when the set went into a tiebreaker,” said 13-year-old Bhoasale.
“School requires 75 per cent attendance so I fulfil that criteria and keep taking leaves for the coaching and practice. My school is very supportive,” added Bhoasale, Class 7 student of Mahatma Phule School, Nanded.
In Pune, Bhoasale trains at Parth Chivte Tennis Academy and stays with her grandmother whenever she visits Pune.
“Summer and Diwali vacations are sure visits to Pune otherwise whenever tournaments are there I manage my leaves do visit Pune,” said Bhosale.
Bhosale won the first set 4-2 in 30 minutes before fighting for 50 minutes to win the second set 5-4 (7-4).
For Devanshee Prabhudesai who trains at Bounce Tennis Academy, the match started on a wrong foot as she kept hitting the shots outside the court.
In the second set, Prabhudesai who likes to hit backhand came out with good executions of shots to force the set into a tie-breaker but failed to cross the victory line.
“The first set was not good for me. In the second set, I played better. I need to improve more on my service. The backhand shot is my strong point,” said Prabhusedai.
City players Oak, Deshmukh take home under-12 titles
Tej Oak and Shrawani Deshmukh claimed the under-12 titles while Adnan Lokhandwala clinched boys title in the under-14 category at the PMDTA-KPIT junior champions series tennis tournament.
Unseeded Oak defeated second-seeded Abhiram Nilakhe 4-2, 4-2 while Deshmukh who lost under-14 semi-final took home under-12 title defeating Prisha Shinde 4-0, 4-1. Third-seeded Lokhandwala stunned top-seeded Jay Pawar 5-4 (7-4), 4-2.
Class 6 student of Symbiosis School, Oak took the control of the match right from the start and did not give an easy chance to Nilakhe who was favourite to win the title. Oak trains under coach Kedar Shah at Bounce Tennis Academy, Law College road
For Deshmukh who is a Class 8 student of Sinhgad Spring Dale School, the final turned out to be a one-sided affair as she was hardly troubled by Shinde.
“It was an easy match for me, my opponent was a good player but she was not able to reach on balls on many occasions which helped me to secure a victory,” added Deshmukh who clinched the fourth title of the year.
Deshmukh also took part in the under-14 category where she lost semi-final 5-7 against Prabhudesai.
“All the matches in the tournament were easy for me in both the categories. (under-12 and 14) except for semi-final of under-14 category,” added Deshmukh who trains at Maharashtriya Mandal, Sadashiv Peth.
Shinde who trains at Solaris club added, “I need to be aggressive while playing that is what I have learnt from this tournament.”
For Lokhandwala, it turned out to be a surprise win as he managed to overcome top-seeded Pawar. It was his first title of the year.
