There was a bevy of upsets in the first round of the Asian Juniors under-14 tennis tournament for boys and girls, conducted by the Ace Tennis Academy at the SAAP Tennis Complex in the Lal Bahadur Stadium, Hyderabad.

Five seeds in both the boys and girls categories bit the dust in the mad scramble for a second round spot. Hyderabad’s Saranya Nagpal, the top seed in the girls event, suffered a shock defeat in straight sets, 2-6, 0-6, to Mihika Yadav from Maharashtra, while the unseeded Sri Laxmi felled fourth-seeded A. Shameena. Tamil Nadu’s Kaavya Subramaniam turned in a gritty performance as she downed Srivani Rao, the seventh seed, through a gruelling three-setter.

But the biggest upset of the first round was caused in boys singles by qualifier Srijitesh Maganti. Srijitesh, locking horns with third-seeded Shri Krishna, faced very little trouble in registering a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Meanwhile, all the other seeds went through without much ado. Girls second seed Y. Pranjala was in imperious form, destroying Harsha Sai Challa en route to a 6-0, 6-0 victory.

Sama Sathwika, seeded fifth, survived a scare before she defeated S. Soha 6-1, 7-5. Sama won the first set 6-1 in commanding fashion, but was taken by surprise when Soha stepped up her game a couple of notches in the second set. However, Sama managed to keep her wits about her to take the set 7-5 and thus, win the match.

Selected results (Round 1)
GIRLS (x denotes seeding)
Mihika Yadav (Ind) bt Saranya Nagpal (Ind, x1) 6-2, 6-0; Apekshita Alkesh (Ind, x6) bt Serah Menezes (Ind) 6-1, 6-0; Himani Mor (Ind, x3) bt Misghan Omer (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Jahnavi Reddy (Ind) bt Shubhi Dwivedi (Ind, x8) 6-3, 6-3; Sama Sathwika (Ind, x5) bt Soha S. (Ind) 6-1, 7-5; Raveena Reddy (Ind) bt Muskaan Rajan (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Astha Dargude (Ind) bt Rehana Shaik (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; Sri Sri Laxmi (Ind) bt Shameena A. (Ind, x4) 6-7 (2), 6-3; Kaavya Balasubramaniam (Ind) bt Srivani Rao (Ind, x7) 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0; Tanvi Bhatt (Ind) bt Mansi Reddy (Ind) 7-6 (7), 6-3; Ch Sai Nikitha (Ind) bt Shreni Voosa (Ind) 6-1, 6-0; Y. Pranjala (Ind, x2) bt Harsha Sai Challa (Ind) 6-0, 6-0.

boys (x denotes seeding)
Aryan Goveas (Ind, x1) bt Babu Pranshu (Ind) 7-5, 6-3, Mayukh Rawat (Ind) bt Kabir Manrai (Ind) 6-3, 6-2; Rian Pandole (Ind, x4) bt Prateek Thota (Qatar) 6-0, 6-0; Srijitesh Maganti (Ind) bt Shri Krishna (Ind, x3) 6-2, 6-3; Abhinav Reddy (Ind) bt Harshal Barne (Ind) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4); Abhimanyu Vannamreddy (Ind) bt Mohan Devanand (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Bijay Kumar Mohanty (Ind, x7) bt Vikrant Dahiya (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Gnana Bhaskar (Ind, x8) bt Amit Batta (Ind) 6-1, 6-4; Nikhit Reddy (Ind) bt Gourav Reddy (Ind) 6-1, 7-5; Apuroop Reddy (Ind) bt Quadri Fayyaz (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Cheruku Vashisht (Ind, x2) bt Dhruv Sunish (Ind) 6-3, 6-2; Jerome Romualdez (Phil, x6) bt Nitin G. (Ind) 6-0, 6-0.