News

Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli and Sushmita Ravi wore the singles crown in the Boys and Girls category respectively in the Tattvam KSLTA U-14 Talent Series tournament that concluded at the KSLTA courts here on Friday. In contrasting finals, Gandharv, continuing his good run overcame third seed Kshitij Aradhya 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 while Sushmita stopped the giant killer Disha Khandoji 6-4, 6-2.

The boy’s final seemed to be evenly matched with both the players showing deftness in their movement across the court but committed silly mistakes too. It was just that the player with lesser mistakes walked away with the title. Gandharv took the first two games before his opponent not only levelled but went ahead 5-3 breaking Gandharv’s serve in the eighth and served out for the set.

The 13-year-old Gandharv achieved the crucial break in the fifth game of the second set to lead 3-2 and closed out the set by winning the next three games in a row. In the deciding set, Gandharv broke his rival’s serve in the fifth game and led 4-2 but the Kshitij ensured that the scores were level by the 10^th game. Once again Gandharv who trains at the Transform Tennis Academy achieved a break in the 11^th before serving out for the match.  

Sushmita, the 13-year-old student of Stella Maris Eng Hr Pry School was 3-0 up with a break in the second game of the first set before her Disha came back strongly to restore parity. Sushmita who used her serve and her forehand to good use, achieved one more break in the ninth game before taking the first set. A similar script followed in the second set until the fifth game before Sushmita held to go up 4-2 and won the set without any further damage to win her third U-14 title.

Results (Finals)

Boys U-14 Singles

Gandharv Kothapalli bt 3-Kshitij Aradhya 3-6, 6-2, 7-5

Doubles

Abhishek Subramaniam / Kristo Babu bt Shrikar Dohni / Kshitij Aradhya 7-6 (4), 3-6, 10-7

Girls U-14 Singles

3-Sushmita Ravi bt Q-Disha Khandoji 6-4, 6-2

Doubles

Snigdha Kanta / Meghana GD bt Sushmita Ravi / Saanvi Misra 1-6, 6-3, 10-4