Indian wild card Nitin Kumar Sinha surprised his third-seeded Japanese rival Taisei Ichikawa in three sets to enter the boys' singles semi-finals of the HCL Asian Junior Tennis Championship here at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, here today.
Sinha, ranked more than 160 places below his Japanese rival, dropped the opening set before gathering his wits to carve out a shock 4-6 6-2 7-6(7) victory in the quarter finals.
Joining Sinha, a lowly 294 in the world junior rankings, in the last four were his compatriots - top seed Siddanth Banthia and Megh Bhargav Patel - and Malaysia's Christian Didier Chin who ousted India's seventh-seeded Dhruv Sunish.
In the girls' singles, top seed Mahak Jain and second seed Mihika Yadav kept India's hopes alive by entering the semi-finals.
Mahak Jain breezed past compatriot and wild card Salsa Aher 6-2 6-2 while Mihika also scored a easy win over Funa Kozaki of Japan 6-1 6-2 in today's quarter final ties.
In the other quarter-finals, Taipei's Kuan Yi Lee stopped the run of Indian Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-4 6-4 while Thailand'a Mai Napatt Nirundorn got past Mana Kawamura of Japan 6-1 1-6 7-5 to complete the semi-final line-up.
The results:
Boys singles (quarter finals): 1-Siddhant Banthia (Ind) bt Ho Ray(TPE) 3-6 6-3 6-1; Megh Bhargav Patel (Ind) bt Digvijay Singh (Ind) 6-4 6-4; Christian Didier Chin (MAS) bt 7-Dhruv Sunish (Ind) 7-6(2) 6-4; Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) bt 3-Taisei Ichikawa (JPN) 4-6 6-2 7-6(7).
Girls singles (quarter finals): 1-Mahak Jain (Ind) bt Salsa Aher (Ind) 6-2 6-2; 4-Kuan Yi Lee (TPE) bt 7-Vaidehi Chaudhari (Ind) 6-4 6-4; 5-Mai Napatt Nirundorn (THA) Mana Kawamura (JPN) 6-1 1-6 7-5; 2-Mihika Yadav (Ind) bt Funa Kozaki (JPN) 6-1 6-2.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
