Wildcards reign supreme

Wildcards reign supreme

Pune: City-based players Arjun Gohad and Rutuja Chaphalkar bagged their maiden Under-14 Asian title at MSLTA School of Tennis at Balewadi Sports Complex here on Friday.

Wildcard Arjun defeated third seed Shashidhar Kota 6-0, 6-1 while in the girls final, giant killer Rutuja got the better of another local girl Priyanshi Bhandari 6-1, 6-2.

Both the wild card entrants had a dream tournament as they ousted seeds before laying their hands on the coveted trophy.
Flawless Arjun

Arjun played like a champion coming into the final, nothing was stopping him from scoring the points. Arjun broke Shashidhar in the first game and from then onwards, he never looked back.

Holding her serve in the second game and then breaking Shashidhar in the third and fifth games to wrap up the first set 6-0.

In the second set, Shashidhar managed to steal one point by breaking Arjun’s serve in the second game but after that, it was all Arjun’s show.
Arjun was brilliant with his backhand returns and also chipped in with furious cross courts shots. He also executed volleys nicely to outplay Hyderabad boy Shashidhar and win the second set 6-1 to complete a memorable victory in the 50 minute match.

“I was playing my natural game. My opponent was making many mistakes, and I got benefit from it and won the game easily. I was just focussed on playing my shots,” said Arjun after the match.

Double for Rutuja
Rutuja had a day to cherish as she clinched the doubles title along with singles title.

Rutuja, who had won the HCL Masters and was selected to train at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain earlier in the year, played with ease to outshine Priyanshi.

After winning the first set 6-1, Priyanshi fought hard in the second set but only managed to earn two points.  She hit few good backhand returns in the middle but could not captalise as Rutuja won the set 6-2 to walk home with the trophy.

In the doubles, Rutuja partnering Vaishnavi Adkar edged out Priyanshi Bhandar and Hrudaya Shah 2-6, 6-4, 10-2.

“My opponent had lot of variations in her shots. Generally girls of my age love to play from the baseline but Priyanshi had lot of differenct shots in her kitty and she was playing it  nicely,” said Rutuja.  

Both the players also thanked MSLTA for providing wildcard entries for the tournament. Arjun and Rutuja are coached by Kedar Shah at Bounce Tennis Academy.

Results:
Final:
Boys: wc-Arjun Gohad bt 3-Shashidhar Kota 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles: Sanmay Gandhi and Dhanya Shah bt 2-Shashidhar Kota and Vishesh Patel 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
Girls: wc-Rutuja Chaphalkar bt Priyanshi Bhandari 6-1, 6-2.
Doubles: Vaishnavi Adkar and Rutuja Chaphalkar bt  Priyanshi Bhandari and Hrudaya Shah 2-6, 6-4, 10-2.

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