PUNE: Wild card entrant
Nitin Kumar Sinha
shocked top seeded Indian compatriot
Siddhant Banthia
in three sets to advance to the boys' singles final of the HCL
Asian Junior Tennis Championship
on Friday.
Sinha, ranked a lowly 294, toppled the 79th-ranked Banthia 6-1 3-6 6-4 after a semi final battle that lasted ten minutes over two hours and enter the final where he would meet Malaysia's Christian Didier Chin tomorrow.
After splitting the first two sets, Sinha got the decisive break in the ninth game of the third set to spoil Banthia's bid for a double crown.
The corresponding girls' final would be an all-India affair between the top two seeds,
Mahak Jain
and Mihika Yadav.
In the other boys' singles semi-final, 196th-ranked Chin stopped the run of giant-killer
Megh Bhargav Patel
2-6 6-4 6-3 in a two-hour tussle.
In the girls' semi-finals, 49th-ranked Mahak outsmarted Kuan Yi Lee of Taipei 6-4 6-1 while Mihika outplayed Mai Napatt Nirundorn of Thailand 6-3 6-4.
Banthia had the consolation of winning the doubles title in tandem with Japan's James Kent Trotter as they swept past John Otico of Philippines and Seita Watanabe of Japan 7-6(5) 6-3 in the title-deciding contest.
In the girls' doubles final, Japanese pair of Mana Kawamura and Funa Kozaki upset third-seeded Akanksha Bhan of India and Mai Napatt Nirundorn of Thailand 7-6(4) 4-6 10-4 in a closely contested match.
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