Lalitpur, September 8

Aadit Subedi of Nepal and Arnav Pathange of India advanced to the boys’ singles final of the Kesha Group ANLTA Asian Junior Tour U14 Circuit-I Tournament here at the Tennis Complex courts today.

Subedi defeated fellow Nepali player Samyak Bajracharya 6-1, 6-1, while Pathange bagged a double bagel against another his doubles partner Amitoj Singh Sacvhdeva in the semi-final matches. Pathange made it a perfect double when he teamed up with Sacvhdeva to beat Saharsha Chand and Aadit Subedi of Nepal 6-3, 6-4 in the boys’ doubles final.

Subedi and Pathange will fight it out for the No 1 ranking, while Bajracharya and Sachdeva face each other in the third-place playoff match on Friday. In other matches of the day, Ambitious Goldsmith of India defeated Saharsha Chand of Nepal 4-1, 5-3 to set the fifth-place match with his countryman Aryaman Mehta, who beat Vatsal Srivastava 4-1, 4-1 in all-India final. The losers will play for seventh place.

Shrikanth Thakur and Sashikant Thakur set another all-India match for the ninth place after they sidelined Aryan Giri of Nepal and Arihant Goel of India respectively, while Binay Batas of Nepal and Aman Goel of India will fight for 13th place. Batas defeated Suden Giri of Nepal 4-0, 4-0 and Goel beat Nepal’s Samragya Katawal 4-0, 2-4, 4-2.

In the bottom half, Pramod Budhathoki and Chhabilal Rawat set the all-Nepal match for 17th place, while Evyak Joshi and Sampuk Hang Limbu are set to fifth for 19th position. Prashiddha Moktan defeated Rohan Bikram Chaudhary 2-4, 5-3, 4-0 in the 21st place playoff, while Abhijit Srivastava finished 25th with a 4-0, 4-0 victory over his Indian teammate Aditya Agrawal.

In girls’ section, Ira M Rawat defeated Prerana Koirala 6-2, 6-1 in all-Nepal match to set the final date with India’s Shambhavi Tiwari, who came from a set down to beat fellow Indian player Lakshanya Vishwanath 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Koirala and Vishwanath will fight for third place. Likewise, Tanisha Pranjal of India beat Nepal’s Priyanka Chaudhary 4-0, 4-0 to set the fifth place match against Abhilasha Bista, who defeated fellow Nepali player Rayana Shah 4-2, 4-2. Chaudhary will face Shah in seventh place playoff.

Likewise, Arshia Ahmed of India and Isha Shree Shah of Nepal set the ninth place playoff. Ahmed defeated Alsha Regmi of Nepal 4-1, 4-1, while Shah rallied for a 4-5(4), 4-0, 4-0 victory over another Nepali player Sneha Yadav. Saloni Tamang beat Lumu Lama 4-1, 4-0 in all-Nepal match played for the 13th position.

In girls’ doubles final, Tanisha Pranjal and Shambhavi Tiwari of India defeated their teammate Arshia Ahmed and Iram Zaidi 6-0, 6-3. Players from Nepal and India are competing in the first-ever international tournament hosted by the All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association after Sri Lanka and Hong Kong withdrew without notifying the organizers. The remaining matches of the event are slated for Friday.