INDIAN GIRLS FARED MUCH BETTER than their male counterparts as four Indian Girls Pranjala Yadlapalli, Zeel Desai, Mahek Jain and Nidhi Surapaneni make it to the second round in the girls singles at the ITF Asian Junior Tennis Championships held at the Mhalunge Balewadi tennis Complex in Pune.
Mahak Jain recorded the lone upset of the day as she toppled seventh seeded Rifanty Kahfiani of Indonesia 1-6,7-5,6-4 to score a big win , Third seeded Zeel Desai lost her momentum in the second set but recovered well to tackle Himari Sato of Japan 6-0,3-6,6-1 in a 2 hour 10 minute match.
India’s top junior Pranjala Yadlapalli seeded fifth here took 1 hour 10 minutes to bundle out another Japanese Satoko Sueno 6-2,6-2 , while in an All India clash Nidhi Surapaneni got the better of Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-4,6-1 to make it to the second round and gain valuable points
Amongst the other Indian players only Shivani Amineni challenged top seeded Yuki Naito of Japan taking her to three sets , before the top seeded Japanese Naito prevailed 7-6(5),2-6,6-3 , 12 other Indian players in action went down in straight sets without making any impact .
In the lone upset of the day fast rising Indian Junior Mahak Jain came back losing the first set to overcome seventh seeded Indonesian Rifanty Kahfiani 1-6,7-5,6-4 in a 2 hour 50 minute battle. Jain who is recovering from strained shoulder said that,
“I got strain in my arm in the first set, so it was tough time “After getting treatment from the physio at the end of the first set I started playing freely, my opponent played a few loose shots in the second set that allowed me to comeback in the game."