Unseeded Saiteja shocks Munshaw

Mumbai, May 17 (UNI) Unseeded Paladugu Saiteja of Andhra Pradesh shocked boys under-14 second seed Vaidik Munshaw of Gujarat 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-2, in the Xtra Premium National Series Tennis Championship here today.

On the third consecutive day of upsets, Saiteja forced the opening set into the tiebreaker and took the lead to put his fancied opponent under early pressure. But Munshaw came back into the match by winning the second set comfortably to keep his hopes alive.

But Munshaw's challenge faded in the decider as Saiteja hit crucial winners and capitalised on his opponent's unforced errors to take the set and match for a place in the quarter-finals.

The upset of Munshaw follows the shock ouster of boys' under-14 top seed Samip Mehta of Gujarat on Monday and boys' under-16 number one Parul Verma of Chandigarh yesterday.

In yet another upset on a day of close encounters, unseeded Siddharth Rawat of UP shocked number six S. Siddharth of Tamil Nadu 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in a pre-quarter-final tie.

Boys under-16 third seed Shiva Sangwan of Chandigarh also crashed to Delhi's Uday Karun Singh who won 6-3, 6-0 in a pre-quarter-final tie.

In contrast, girls' under-14 top seed Garima Vatwani and number three Gopika Kapoor, both of Delhi, enjoyed easy second round encounters.

Results: Boys U-16 (PQF): Uday Karun Singh (Del) bt 3-Shiva Sangwan (Chand) 6-3, 6-0; Gaurav Walia (Mah) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-3, 1-6, 6-4; Sameer Patwardhan (Mah) bt Kaushik Reddy (AP) 6-4, 6-2.

Boys U-14 (PQF): Ryoto Tachi (Mah) bt Kunal Anand (Del) 7-5, 6-3; 7-Shahbaz Khan (Mah) bt Hans Parthasarthi (Ori) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; 3-Mohit Mayur (TN) bt Rakshay Thakkar (Mah) 6-2, 6-3; Siddharth Rawat (UP) bt 6-S. Siddharth (TN) 7-6 (2), 6-4; 9-Tushal Thawani (Mah) bt Nishant Dikkala 6-3, 6-4; 4-S.V. Abhishek (AP) bt Vishwesh Sinha (Mah) 7-6 (5), 6-4; 8-Chetan Pandit (AP) bt R. Ramkumar (TN) 7-5, 6-1; Paladugu Saiteja (AP) bt 2-Vaidik Munshaw (Guj) 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-2.

Girls U-14 (2nd round): 1-Garima Vatwani (Del) bt Dhriti Manek (Mah) 6-4, 6-4; Jenai Billimoria (Mah) bt Neha Purohit (AP) 7-5, 7-5; Nupur Kaul (Mah) bt Shruti Archita (Mah) 6-2, 6-0; Bhavana Suresh (AP) bt 6-Yamini Reddy (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; 3-Gopika Kapoor (Del) bt Baljinder Kaur (Har) 6-1, 6-1; Madhuri Patere (Mah) bt Rachita Saarda (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; Sharmada Balu (Kar) bt Natasha Palha (Goa) bt 6-2, 3-6, 6-0; 7-Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Anuja Makan (Mah) 6-0, 6-3.

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