New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) Senthil Kumar and Maaya Rajeshwaran kept India in the title hunt at the ITF J300 event by progressing to the semifinals of the boys and girls singles, respectively, but Arnav Paparkar bowed out of the tournament being played at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) Complex here on Thursday.
Top seed Senthil, ranked as high as 36 in the world, was up against compatriot Samarth Sahita, who belied his 280th rank with a stunning fight. He had to dig deep into his resources to beat Samarth 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the gruelling quarterfinal at Court No. 3 at the DLTA Complex.
It could have been an all-Indian semifinal but Arnav Paparkar fell to fourth seed Korean Donghyun Hwang 6-4, 4-6, 5-7 in another high-quality quarterfinal in the boys’ event.
Now, Senthil and Hwang will clash for a place in the final.
The other semifinal will be between Korea’s Hyon Seok Seo and America’s Rosha Santhosh. Seo fought past Latvia’s Arturs Zagras 7-5, 6-4, while Santhosh also had to work hard to earn a 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(4) win over Kazakhstan’s Damir Zhalgasbay.
In the girls’ singles, Maaya continued her giant-killing run as she knocked out seventh seed Rada Zolotareva, who pulled out of the quarterfinal contest when the Indian was leading 6-3, 1-0.
Maaya, though, has a tough task at hand now as she will go up against second-seed Eleejah Inisan, who ended the run of Serbian fifth-seed Petra Koljikusic 7-5, 6-0.
The other semifinal will be between Polina Berezina and Ekaterina Tupitsyna, who sent packing eighth seed Briton Allegra Korpanec Davies 7-6(9), 7-5.
This means Indian players are still in contention for titles in two categories, men’s singles and women’s singles.
The boys’ doubles final will be between fourth seeds Artem Bogomolov/Roman Kharlamov and Alan Aiukhanov/Alexey Shibaev after they won their respective semifinals.
–IANS
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