KATHMANDU, Feb 15: Nepal's poor run at the ongoing Nepal ITF Junior U-18 Tennis Tournament's Circuit Two continued on Wednesday as all the participants of the host team in the singles category including Samrakshak Bhushan Bajracharya, Prerana Koirala and Mahika Rana faced defeats on Wednesday.
In the round two matches of boys singles played at Satdobato's tennis court, Samrakshak faced a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to India's Piyush S Salekar. Similarly in the girls singles category, Perena was defeated by Punnin Kovapitkted of Thailand in the double bagel while Mahika was beaten by India's Bhakti Shah 6-3, 6-2. All the victorious players advanced to the quarterfinals.
Similarly, in the other boys single matches, Indian participants Theertha Shashank Macherla, Kabir Manrai, Atharva Sharma, Aaaryan Zaveri and Mritunjay Badola won their respective round two matches and booked their places in the quarterfinals. Theertha defeated China's Guanglin Wen 6-1, 7-6 (6) while Kabir overcame Achint Bhagat of the same nation 6-1, 6-1. Likewise, Atharva and Aaryan also overcame the challenge of team mates Vansh Bhagtani and Dipin Wadhwa 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3, 6-3 respectively while Mritunjay defeated Ishan Sethi 6-1, 6-0. In the other matches of the same event, Michal Wozniak overcame Jaishvin Sidana who was retired during the match and Penjyu Lu beat Aditya Iyer of India 6-2, 7-5. Both Michal and Penjyu also made to the last eight of the tournament.
In the girls singles event, four Chinese participants including Yujiao Che, Jing Yang, Mingqiao Yang and Na Dong reached the quarterfinals producing wins in the round two matches. Yujiao and Jing overcame Indian players Malvika Shukla and Gauri Bhagta 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1. Similarly, Mingqiao and Na Dong beat Annika Kannan Of India and Kiran Kalkal 6-4, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 respectively. In the other matches of the same event, Vaidehi Chaudhari and Shivani Swarup Ingle of India also emerged victorious as they beat China's Zongyu Li and Chunxi Guo 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-1 respectively.
Meanwhile in the boys doubles category, the Indian pair of Aditya Iyer and Piyush S Salekar advanced to the semifinals registering the win over the pair of Theertha Macherla and Kabir Manrai of the same nation. Similarly, another Indian pair comprising Gunjan Jhadhav and Atharva Sharma also made it to last four, defeating the pair of Britain's Kyle Stocker and Poland's Michal Wozniak. In the other matches of the same event, the pair of Japan's Ryo Lizumi and Guanglin Wen of China overcame the pair of USA's Arjun Mariyappa and Thailand's Michael Mathayomchand while the Chinese pair of Pengyu Lu and Guangsen Wen beat the Indian pair of Arnav Pthange and Aryan Pathange.
In the girls double event, the Indian pair of Vaidehi Chaudhari and Shivani Swarup Ingle defeated the pair of Annika Kannan and Janvi Patel of the same nation to book their places in the last four. Similarly, the Chinese pair of Zongyu Li and Jing Yang overcame the pair of Chunxi Huo of China and Misha Sood of India. In the other matches, the pair of Thailand's Punnin Kovapitkted and Mio Kozaki of Japan beat the Indian pair of Gauri Bhagia and Malvika Shukla while another Chinese pair of Yujiao Che and Jingyi Wang defeated the pair of India's Richa Dadasaheb and Kiran Kalkal.
Nepali players' poor run continues in junior tennis
