Karan takes on Balaji in boys' HT-AITA U-16 tennis tourney

New Delhi, Apr 14 (UNI) Local lad Karan Uday Singh will take on Sriram Balaji of Tamil Nadu in the boys' singles final of the HT-AITA under 16 National Junior Tennis Series here tomorrow.

Karan shocked second-seeded Vijyant Malik of Chandigarh 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in a thrilling two-hour semifinal, while third seed Balaji downed another local favourite fifth seed Yuki Bhambri 6-1, 6-1 in the second semifinal at the Yamuna Sports Complex courts at Surajmal Vihar here today.

In the girls' section, top seed V Archana of Andhra Pradesh had to sweat out for two hours to get the better of fourth seeded Prachi Nadkarni of Maharashtra 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to enter in the final. She will take on eighth seeded Tanvir Shah of Maharashtra, who beat Garima Vatwani of Delhi 6-3, 6-2.

In the boys' doubles, top seed Vikram Reddy (AP) and Vijyant Malik (Chd) will take on Sriram Balaji (TN) and Venkat Iyer (Delhi). Reddy-Malik duo beat Ankit Sachdev (Delhi) and Subhas Rao (Delhi) 6-2, 6-2, while Balaji-Iyer pair downed Romnak Manuja (Mah) and Parul Verma (Chd) 6-0, 6-3 the semifinals.

In the girls' doubles, Andhra Pradesh pair of M Divija and T Nilaya got the better of West Bengal duo of Treta Bhattacharya and Dipti Srivastava 6-4, 6-4 to meet Gopika Kapur (Delhi) and Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah), who beat Maharashtra duo of Prachi Nadkarni and Tanvir Shah 7-6, 6-4, in the final tomorrow.

UNI PDS RL VC1902