Kabir, Nidhi reign supreme

Kabiir Panchmatia lived up to his top seed billing and beat Pune’s Riaan Patil in straight sets 5-3, 4-0. In the first set Kabiir took time to settle down, and once he got his mojo, he never looked back. Riaan did come to the finals by winning his previous four matches of the tournament, but did not have enough fire power to face Kabiir.

In the girls singles event, giant killer Nidhi Patil from Dhulia (Seed two) responded to her senior opponent Jyothishika Arekanti with solid returns and long rallies, and both girls fought hard, played all the shots, but the cool as a cat Nidhi upset Jyothishika today in straight sets, bot tiebreakers, by the score reading 5-4(4), 5-4(2). The second set could have finished earlier, but Jyotishika fought back with all her might, and almost levelled the score. Nidhi then raised her game and finished in the tiebreaker.

In the semifinals, Kabiir beat third seed Ahaan Nargolkar from Pune 6-4 in a tight encounter. A range of shots were played by both players. Riaan beat Hrivaan Mehta from Mumbai 6-2 in a one sided match. In the Girls semifinals Nidhi Patil beat Avni More from Nasik 6-3 while Jyotishika beat Anaysha Chaphalkar from Pune 6-4 in a tightly fought match after being 1-4 down.

In the prize distribution function, Dr Sudhir Bhiwapurkar, tournament director and Vijay Naidu, tournament secretary, gave away the trophies. The young champions were very happy having won the tournament and so were the parents who had gathered at the MSLTA Ramnagar centre