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Double for Mihika

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

Tamil Nadu's L. R. Balaji (under-12), Kerala's Anirudh Jaindhan (under-14) and Maharashtra's Mihika Yadav (under-12 and under-14) with their trophies.

KOCHI: Mumbai's Mihika Yadav won the hearts of the crowd with her gritty display in the Malabar Cements-RSC AITA Talent Series all-India ranking tennis tournament at the Regional Sports Centre here on Thursday evening.

Just 10, Mihika walked away with both the under-12 and 14 singles titles, the last with a brilliant comeback victory. The sixth seed was down 2-4 in the opening set of the under-14 final against Tamil Nadu's fourth-seeded Shreyashree but she found her way back smartly with some brilliant forehand shots and crosscourt play.

“This is the first time I'm winning a double in the under-12 and 14 section,” said Mihika, a sixth standard student of the Bombay Scottish School after her giant-killing run in the event.

Coimbatore's sixth-seeded L.R. Balaji also turned out be a giant-killer, slaying the top-seeded M. Rehan Kumar in straight sets for his first major under-12 title while Kerala's Anirudh Jaindhan was the only top seed to live up to his billing, taking the under-14 trophy, his maiden National-level title in the age-group.

M. Sundaram Moorthy, Managing Director of Malabar Cements, gave away the prizes.

The results: Boys (under-12): Final: L.R. Balaji (TN) bt M. Rehan Kumar (TN) 6-3, 6-1. Under-14: Final: Anirudh Jaindhan (Ker) bt L.R. Balaji (TN) 6-1, 6-3. Semifinals: Anirudh bt Varun Nair (Ker) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1; Balaji bt Arnav Patodia (Ker) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). Doubles final (best of 17 games): Anirudh & Kevin George (Ker) bt Dayan J. Madhav & Arnav Patodia (Ker) 9-3.

Girls: Under-12: Final: Mihika Yadav (Mah) bt S. Mansi Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-2. Semifinals: Mihika bt T. Shreyashree (TN) 6-4, 6-4; Mansi bt V. Surya Narayani (TN) 6-4, 6-1. Under-14: Mihika bt T. Shreyashree (TN) 7-5, 6-2. Doubles final: G.S. Vasavi & B.S. Suma Priya (TN) bt V. Surya Narayani & T. Shreyashree (TN) 9-8(5) .

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