Local players falter on Day-II
Lalitpur, February 7
Nepali players had disappointing results on the second day of the Nepal ITF Junior U-18 Circuit-I Tennis Championship here at the Satdobato Tennis Complex today.
Nepali players competed in 12 events but only Samrakshak Bhushan Bajracharya, who teamed up with Mathew Yee of Hong Kong, could register a victory. The duo advanced to the boys’ doubles quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the pair of Vansh Bhagtani of India and Michael Mathayomchand of Thailand.
In other matches, Nepal’s Bibek Shankar Shrestha and Avneet Singh of India faced a 6-0, 6-0 defeat against Indian pair of Mritunjay Badola and Dipin Wadhaw, while another Indian pair of Gunjan Jadhav and Atharva Sharma also bagged a double bagel against Abhinav Acharya and Saurav Raj Pandey of Nepal to make it to the last eight.
Also, Nepal’s Sakchham Karki and India’s Partyush Mohanty were beaten by Indian duo Theertha S Macherla and Kabir Manrai 6-3, 6-4, Samyak Bhushan Bajracharya of Nepal and India’s Nandish Shah suffered a 6-2, 6-1 loss against Indian duo of Jaishvin Sidana and Adarsh Naga Tippabhatla, and the pair of Pranav Khanal and Renjan Lama lost to China’s Pengyu Lu and Guangsen Wen 6-4, 6-4. In other matches, Guanglin Wen and Yu Lun Zie of China defeated Ryo Iizumi of Japan and Michal Wozniak of Poland 2-6, 6-3, 14-12; and Indian duo Aditya Iyer and Piyush Surendra Salekar beat Arjun Mariyappa of the USA and Kyle Stocker of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3 to enter the quarter-finals.
In boys’ singles, all three Nepali players lost to Indian opponents. Saurav Raj Pandey went down to Aditya Iyer 6-0, 6-0, Pranav Khanal lost to Piyush S Salekar 6-1, 6-3 and Sakchham Karki suffered a 6-2, 6-1 defeat against Adarsh Naga Tippabhatla. In another match, Poland’s Michal Woznlak beat Guanglin Wen of China 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
In girls’ doubles category, Nepali duo Bibhuti Karki and Bijisha Shresha went down to Ashpreet Kaur Bajwa of India and Mio Kozaki of Japan 6-4, 6-1, the pair of Anne Mathema and Catherine Mathema suffered a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the hands of Chunxi Guo of China and Punnin Kovapitukted of Thailand, the pair of Mahika Rana and Mayanka Rana faced a 6-4, 6-3 loss against Indian pair of Vaidehi Chaudhari and Shivani Swarup Ingle.
Also, Yujiao Che and Jingyi Wang of China defeated India’s Gauri Agarwal and Misha Sood 6-2, 7-6 (7), Bhakti Shah and Riya Uboveja of India edged past India’s Yashaswini Panwar and Sri Lankan Anika Seneviratne 7-5, 6-4, China’s Na Dong and Mingalao Yang beat India’s Sharannya Gaware and Janvi Patel 6-3, 4-6, 10-6, and Anjail Mogili of the USA teamed up with India’s Bhavya Ramineni for a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Indian duo Nikita Salkar and Malvika Shukla.
In girls’ singles, Sharannya Gaware of India defeated Chunxi Guo of China 6-1, 6-3, Mio Kozaki of Japan outplayed Jingyi Wang of China 6-1, 6-1, Na Dong of China beat Bhavya Raminent of India 6-4, 6-4, and Yujiao Che of China recorded a 6-2, 6-1 victory over India’s Riya Uboveja.