Vipasha powers past fourth seed Sanya into semis

age correspondent

Sports, In Other sports

In the third set, Sanya managed to stay in the fight and saved four matchpoints in the 12th game to take the set to the tie-breaker.

Vipasha Mehra

Qualifier Vipasha Mehra of Maharashtra put up a gallant display to knock aside fourth-seeded Sanya Singh, also from Maharashtra, in a marathon girls’ singles quarter final match of the MSLTA —Yonex Sunrise 12th Ramesh Desai Memorial CCI All India Nationals Under-16 (boys & girls) Tennis Tournament 2018.

Ranked 63rd on the AITA ranking list, the Pune-based Vipasha, who had defeated eighth seed Gargi Pawar in the previous round, produced another gutsy performance to put it across the fifth-ranked Sanya in three long drawn and energy draining sets, winning  6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in a little over four hours, at the Cricket Club of India tennis courts, Churchgate on Thursday afternoon.

The left-handed Vipasha, who showed more aggression and stronger serves, started well as she comfortably won the first set, but Sanya did well to win the second to level the scores and force the decider.

In the third set, Sanya managed to stay in the fight and saved four matchpoints in the 12th game to take the set to the tie-breaker. Vipasha raced to a 3-1 and 4-2 lead before Sanya managed to draw level at 4-4. After both players won another point each, the former managed to win the next two points to close out the match.   

Meanwhile, second seeds, Udit Gogoi of Assam and Prerna Vichare of Maharashtra, both smoothly progressed to the boys’ and girls’ singles semi-finals respectively.

The Assam youngster Udit, number five on the AITA ranking list, charged past his 99th ranked opponent Nishant Dabas of Delhi, winning 6-1, 6-3 in a quarter final match, at the Cricket Club of India tennis courts, Churchgate on Thursday morning.

In the girls’ singles quarter-final encounter, the AITA third ranked Maharashtra girl Prerna dropped just one game as she went on to record a crushing 6-1, 6-0 victory against Uttar Pradesh’s 16th ranked Vanshika Choudhary, who had no answer to her rival’s superior power play.

In the penultimate round, the Maharashtra girl, Prerna will clash with compatriot Sudipta Senthil Kumar who prevailed over Telangana’s Sanjana Sirimalla in straight sets. The Maharashtra girl Sudipta showed more consistency and managed to pull off a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

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