Yuki Bhambri wins doubles wild card for Australian Open

Yuki Bhambri clinched the doubles wild card with Michael Venus of New
Zealand, but his singles campaign was cut short in the semifinals by
Di Wu of China, in the Asia-Oceania Australian Open wild card play-off
at the Luohu Tennis Centre, Shenzhen, China, on Saturday.

The second-seeded Yuki and Venus, who had won a Challenger earlier in
the season, had to sweat it out 7-6(3), 1-6, 10-5 against the
fourth-seeded Gong Miao-Xin and Li Zhe of China in the doubles final.

‘’It was a tough match and very close. We really had to dig deep to
win this one and both of us are excited to play in Australia. I have
always enjoyed playing doubles and I want to get my doubles ranking up
along side my singles’’, said the 21-year-old Yuki, when contacted by
The Hindu in China.

The Indo-Kiwi pair got off to a sluggish start and trailed 1-4 before
bouncing back. Yuki saved a setpoint on his serve in the 12th game. It
was Li Zhe’s served that proved the weak link in the first set
tie-break and the match tie-break subsequently.

However, in singles, the second-seeded Yuki was unable to get past Di
Wu of China who had clinched the wild card in the last edition for his
maiden Grand Slam appearance. The third-seeded Chinese, ranked 205,
one rung below Yuki, won the match 7-6(6), 6-4, saving two setpoints
in the tie-break.

‘’I had opportunities to close out the first set, as I served at 5-4.
I was up 6-4 in the tie-break. But, he never gave me a chance in those
points. He raised his level a bit on the crucial points’’, said Yuki,
quite liberal in praise of the Chinese whom he had beaten in the final
of the Asia-Oceania junior championship in Delhi in 2007.

Interestingly, the top-seeded Jimmy Wang of Chinese Taipei was also
shown the door 6-2, 6-4 by Ze Zhang of China in the other semifinal.

The women’s doubles wild card was bagged by Xinyun Han of China and
Miki Miyamura of Japan who beat Hao Chen Tang and Zhaoxuan Yang of
China 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the final. It was the second successive
doubles wild card for Xinyun Han as she had made it with Zhou Yi-Miao
last time.

Sriram Balaji clinches second singles title of the season

BHOPAL, NOV. 23:

It was the second singles title of the season for Sriram Balaji as the
second seed defeated the third-seeded Na Jung-Woong of Korea 7-5, 7-5
in the final of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the
Arera Club here on Saturday.

It was a welcome title for the 23-year-old Balaji, who trains at the
Schuttler Waske tennis centre in Germany, after he had failed to win a
set against Yuki Bhambri in the previous final last week in Delhi.

Incidentally, Balaji did not drop a set in the whole week in singles,
and was understandably delighted to add to the title he had won
earlier in the season at home.

‘’It has been a great week and has given me a lot of confidence. I had
to grind right from the first round’’, said Balaji who broke the
Korean in the 12th game of the first set to put the match on a
decisive course.

Balaji bounced back from being a break down in the second set to
finish the match in straight sets.

‘’He was not making many mistakes and that put me under pressure. I
served well and mixed up by going to the net’’, said Balaji quite
happy to have his friend from the US, Navaneetha Kannan travelling
with him for support.

The title was worth 27 ATP points for the 458th ranked Balaji who had
been ranked a career-best 313 in February. It was the fourth title for
Balaji and third at home.

Akash Wagh beats Paul Monteban in ITF men’s event in Raipur

RAIPUR, NOV. 23:

Akash Wagh defeated Paul Monteban of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 in the
first qualifying round of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis
tournament at the VIP’s Club here on Saturday.

The results:

Qualifying event (first round): Nishant Rebello bt Mohamed Hussain
Shaikh 6-0, 6-0; Ronit Singh Bisht bt Kaysar Bekimov (Kaz) 6-1, 6-4;
Kuatbek Abiyev (Kaz) bt Saurabh Singh 6-2, 6-2; Jannis Liniger (Sui)
bt Amrit Narasimhan 6-2, 6-2; Mukund Sasikumar bt Neeraj Elangovan
6-4, 2-0 (retired); Chandril Sood bt Sarthak Deoras 6-0, 6-0; Akash
Wagh bt Paul Monteban (Ned) 6-3, 6-4; Lakshit Sood bt Nail Khabiyev
(US) 6-1, 6-4; Kunal Anand bt Chinmay Pradhan 6-1, 6-0; Ajai Selvaraj
bt Jaganmaya Panigrahi 6-1, 6-2; Odil Akramov (Uzb) bt Arpit Sharma
6-1, 6-3; Timur Khabibulin (Kaz) bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-4, 6-4; Sagadat
Ayap (Kaz) bt Vikram Naidu Srinivas 6-1, 6-3.

Shrey Gupta outplays top seed Dhir Gala in qualifying event in ITF juniors in Delhi

NEW DELHI, NOV. 23:

Shrey Gupta outplayed the top-seeded Dhir Gala 6-0, 6-4 in the second
qualifying round of the boys section in the ITF grade-4 junior tennis
tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

The wild cards for the main draw in the boys section were given to
Amarnath Arora, Tanishq Mahendru, Pranav Malhotra and Dheer Anushsingh
Bhatti.

The wild cards for girls went to, Simran Kaur Sethi, Vasanti Shinde,
Aarushi Bhasin and Kanishka Chawla.

The results:

Qualifying event: Boys (second round): Shrey Gupta bt Dhir Gala 6-0,
6-4; Param Pun bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-2, 7-5; Yash Yadav bt Kushaan
Nath 6-4, 6-4; Abhimanyu Dakwale bt Taran Mundkur 6-2, 6-1; Taha
Kapadia bt Robin Gajree 6-1, 6-3; Anav Vadehra bt Jaffer Javed 6-1,
6-4; Manav Pondkule bt Nimesh Khandelwal 6-2, 6-1.

First round: Dhir Gala bt Prithvi Khanna 6-0, 6-2; Shrey Gupta bt
Anshuman Gulia 6-4, 6-3; Raghav Jaisinghani bt Vignesh Subramanyan
(US) 6-2, 6-3; Param Pun bt Kartikeya Sharma 6-2, 6-1; Kushaan Nath bt
Nehra Lavish 6-3, 6-0; Yash Yadav bt Anupam Kumar 6-1, 6-2; Abhimanyu
Dakwale bt Harmeet Luthra 6-1, 6-3; Taran Mundkur bt Siddhant Mahala
6-1, 6-0; Taha Kapadia bt Mohit Bhardwaj 6-1, 6-0; Robin Gajree bt
Rahul Khanna 6-0, 6-0; Anav Vadehra bt Abhinav Mahajan 6-2, 6-4;
Jaffer Javed bt Kartik Kuber Chavare Bhaiyu 6-3, 6-3; John Paul Avila
(Mex) bt Upamanyu Sinha 6-0, 6-2; Udayan Bhakar bt Maahin Puri 6-1,
6-2; Nimesh Khandelwal bt Vidul Talwar 6-1, 7-6(5); Manav Pondkule bt
Vanshal D’Souza 6-1, 7-6(6).

Girls (first round): Mansi Reddy Siddareddy bt Madhumitha Meenakshi
Rajan 6-4, 6-1; Abhilasha Vishwanath bt Sonul Jain 6-2, 6-1; Renu
Sharma bt Simran Wadhwa 7-5, 6-3; Ananya Mahapatra bt Priyam Kumari
6-1, 6-0; Anupreet Bedi bt Tuhina Chopra 6-2, 6-2; Tanasha Khandpur bt
Sahsmitha Kotte 6-1, 6-0.