Pandey fired five aces en route to victory in the match held at the court of Little Angels´ (LA) School, Hattiban, on the opening day after receiving a bye in the first round.[break]
Pandey´s quarterfinal opponent on Wednesday will be second-ranked Mahika Rana, who just returned from a two-week training camp in New Delhi, India.
According to Krishna Raj Ghale, who accompanied eight junior players to New Delhi for the camp from August 12-26, the Nepal Lawn Tennis Association (NLTA) has given special attention to junior players in order to prepare a strong base for Nepali tennis.
“We are organizing about four to five junior tennis tournaments every year because the young players are our future. You cannot have a strong team if you just conduct tournaments at the senior level,” said Ghale, who is also the coordinator of the Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) taken up by NLTA about five years ago.
In other matches of the girls´ U-12 age group, Ayusha Rai of LA, Riyasha Baidya of Rato Bangala, Ira Rawat of Pennwood and Cathy Mathela of Ullen´s registered wins.
In the boys´ section of the same age group, Nabin Joshi, Swaraj KC and Kiran Rai of LA, Aryan Giri of Ullen´s and Devansh Agrawal of Rato Bangala emerged victorious.
In the matches held at the Satdobato Tennis Complex, Ganga Sharma of Gandaki School, Pokhara, defeated Geeta Shrestha of LA 8-0 to advance into the semifinals of the girls´ U-18 singles. Likewise, Kripa Sharma of Pacific saw off Presita Satyal of St Mary´s 8-0 while Manjita Nyanchhan of St Xavier´s beat Akriti Acharya of LA 9-8 to enter the last four. Suchita Satyal completed the semifinal line-up with a 9-8 win over Pritika Manandhar of St Xavier´s.
In the boys´ section of the same age group, Ganesh Karki of NTC defeated David Tako of LA 8-1 in the quarterfinals. Likewise, Akshay Karki of Kendriya Vidyala beat Akshay Lamkhor of GEMS 8-5.
Ivan Hoe Lissanevitch of The British School won his boys´ U-16 singles match against Kevin Gurung of LA with a score of 8-0. In the girls´ section, Geeta Shrestha (LA), Bibhuti Karki (St Xavier´s) and Pritika Manandhar (St Xavier´s) won their respective matches.
The winners of the first round in U-14 boys´ singles were Krilraj Satyal (St Xavier´s), Kastup Pandey (Ullen´s), Chandraman Rokaya (LA), Sajan Rai (LA), Bivek Shrestha (Modern Indian), Sandesh Paudel (LA), Andy Nyfenegger (Rupy´s International), Pranav Khanal (St Xavier´s), Dipen Rana (LA), Immanuel Lim (The British School) and Samrakshak Bhushan Bajracharya (Shuvatara).
In the girls´ U-14 section, Sachi Gurung (Chandbagh), Shalini Pradhan (St Xavier´s), Madhavi Giri (Ullen´s) and Sanchita Rana (Mahendra Adarsha) won their respective matches.
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