News

Fancied players both in the men’s and women’s category did not have to break much sweat while advancing into the semifinals of the Rs 3-lakh prize money KSLTA-AITA Wheelchair tennis tournament being played at the KSLTA here on Thursday.

The only matches that saw a bit of resistance was when top seed Duria Mariappan of Tamil Nadu was stretched by Uttar Pradesh’s Indrajit Pandey before overcoming 9-5 in a men’s singles quarterfinal tie while host state’s A Sudha, seeded sixth beat the better ranked Ruth Rajeshwari (No.4) of Tamil Nadu 9-7 in a women’s last eight match.

The semifinal line up in the men’s section sees a lone player from Karnataka – No. 2 seed Veerasamy Shekhar while it will be an all-home battle in the women’s category.

Results (Seedings in pre-fix and states in Parenthesis)

Men’s singles (Quarterfinals)

1-Durai Mariappan (TN) bt Indrajit Pandey (UP) 9-5; 4-Subramanian Balachander (TN) bt H Madhusudan (KAR) 9-3; 3-Karunakaran Kartik (TN) bt S Shivaprasad (KAR) 9-3; 2-Veerasamy Shekhar (KAR) bt 6-Anil Almeida (KAR) 9-1.

Women’s singles (Quarterfinals)

1-Pratima Rao (KAR) bt 8-MK Mubina (KAR) 9-0; 3-Nalina Kumari (KAR) bt 5-K Shilpa 9-3; 6-A Sudha (KAR) bt 4- Ruth Rajeshwari (TN) 9-7; 2-KP Shilpa (KAR) bt 7-T Sheranthi (TN) 9-0