Lalitpur, September 5

Nepal’s 18 players, including seven boys and 11 girls, entered into the round of 16 of the Kesha Group-ANLTA Asian Junior Ranking Tour U-14 Circuit-I Tournament here at the Tennis Complex today.

In the boys’ singles category, Binaya Batas defeated Abhijeet Srivastava of India 6-3, 6-3, while Suden Giri registered a 6-3, 6-1 win over his teammate Rohan Bikram Chaudhary. Samragya Katawal edged past Grijesh Man Shrestha 6-1, 6-0 and Aryan Giri saw off Evyak Joshi 6-0, 6-2. Saharsha Chand, Aadit Subedi and Samyak Bajracharya received walkover wins. Likewise, Prasidhi Moktan, Pramod Budhathoki, Saharsha Prajuli, Chhabilal Rawat and Shampuk Hang Limbu faced defeats at the hands of their Indian opponents.

In girls’ singles, Alsha Regmi registered a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Sharvani Shrestha, while Saloni Tamang defeated Angel Dongol 6-1, 6-0. Ira Mehernissa Rawat, Priyanka Chaudhary, Suravi Katwal, Prerana Koirala, Sneha Yadav, Lumu Tso Lama, Rayana Shah, Isha Shree Shah and Abhilasha Bista received byes. The winners in the singles event will fight for the rankings from 1-16, while the players who lost their first-round matches will play for 17-32 ranking.

In boys’ doubles, the pair of Suden Giri and Ekyak Joshi got walkover win from Saharsha Prajuli and Grijesh Man Shrestha, while Binaya Batas and Chhabilal Rawat beat the pair of Aditya Agrawal (India) and Samragya Katawal (Nepal) 6-0, 6-0. Also, the duo of Saharsha Chand and Aadit Subedi earned walkover win.

The pair of Samyak Bajracharya and Aryan Giri went down to India’s Sashikant Thakur and Shrikant Thakur 5-7, 6-1, 10-8, while Shampuk Hang Limbu and Prasidha Moktan lost to Indian pair of Ambitious Goldsmith and Aryaman Mehta 6-1, 6-0.

The first-ever international tournament hosted by the All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association was marred by the no-show from Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. “Hong Kong and Sri Lanka had registered their players for the tournament but they did not show up,” said ANLTA President Jyoti Rana. “Neither they withdrew nor they came to take part in the tournament,” said Rana.