Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Players from Maharashtra performed strongly in the first qualifying round of the EMMTC – MSLTA Under-14 Clay Court National Tennis Championship being held at the EMMTC Tennis Complex.
Riya Kulkarni, Swara Pawar, Vishnu Pande, Soham Ghodke and Kabir Gundecha from Maharashtra along with Zayan Mohammad from Telangana defeated their respective opponents and entered the second round of the qualifying round.
Shock to seeded players
Maharashtra’s rising star Vishnu Pande made a strong start to the tournament by comfortably defeating 16th seed Veer Joshilkar 6-1, 6-2. Telangana’s Zayan Mohammed produced the first major upset of the tournament by defeating 15th seed Harsh Nagwani of Maharashtra 6-3, 7-5. In the most closely contested match, Maharashtra’s Soham Ghodke defeated Advait Gund in a hard-fought tie-break 7-5, 2-6, 11-9, which proved Soham’s mental strength. Kabir Gundecha gave no chance to his opponent by thrashing Advait Singh 6-0, 6-0. In other notable victories, Shubh Nahata, Balraj Birajdar, Arnav Kulkarni and Samarth Wankhede also dominated their respective groups.
Brilliant performance of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar girls
In the girls’ category, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar players played an impressive game on their home court. Riya Kulkarni defeated Maharashtra’s Ayushka Khedekar 6-4, 6-3. Swara Pawar won a big victory over Akshari Mandlik 6-2, 6-1. Apart from this, Maharashtra’s Vanya Agarwal and Swamini Khairnar also won by a big margin and secured a place in the second round.
Emerging players from all over the country are participating in this tournament organized at the EMMTC Tennis Complex under the approval of ATF, AITA and MSLTA, which is likely to make the next rounds more exciting.
