Rohit Bisht steals day's honours

Mumbai, May 3 (UNI) Fourteen-year-old Rohit Bisht of Delhi was the toast of the day when he entered boys' under-16 and under-14 semi-finals in the All India National Series and Maharashtra State Ranking Tennis Tournament 2007 at Practennis, Andheri.

Bisht, who is enjoying a brilliant campaign, came through a tight boys under-16 quarter-final contest to shock second seed Mansingh Athare of Maharashtra 7-6, 4-7, 7-5.

Bisht capped a rewarding day when he also advanced to boys under-14 semi-finals. As the top seed in this category, he crushed unseeeded Rupam Gogoi of Assam 6-2, 6-1.

In contrast, boys under-16 third seed Samip Mehta of Gujarat and No. 4 Chetan Pandit of Andhra Pradesh advanced to the last four along with unseeded Sagar Ahuja of Maharashtra.

Fourth seed Treta Bhattacharya of West Bengal was another big casualty, going down to Shivani Singh of Andhra Pradesh 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in an exciting girls under-16 pre-quarter-final.

Results: Nat. Series: Boys U-16 (Quarters): Samip Mehta (Guj) bt Sai Kartik (AP) 6-2, 6-2; Chetan Pandit (AP) bt Suraj Desai (Guj) 6-1, 6-3; Rohit Bisht (Del) bt Mansingh Athare (Mah) 7-6 4-7, 7-5; Sagar Ahuja (Mah) bt S.V. Abhishek (AP) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

Boys U-14 (Quarters): Rohit Bisht (Del) bt Rupam Gogoi (Asm) 6-2, 6-1; Arjun Kadhe (Mah) bt Sharan Patil (Kar) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1; Sidharth Rawat (UP) bt Vigneshwaran (tn) 6-3, 6-0; Digvijay Singh (HP) bt Ronit Bisht (Del) 7-6 (6), 6-3.

Girls U-16 (Pre-Quarters): Nimisha Mohan (Kar) bt Natasha Palha (Goa) 6-2, 6-3; Divya Rao (AP) bt Neha Purohit (AP) 6-2, 6-3; Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah) bt Riddhi Hegde (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; Shivani Singh (AP) bt Treta Bhattacharyya (WB) 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Girls U-14 (Pre-Quarters): Anushka Bhargava (AP) bt Sanjana M Kumar (TN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Suresh Bhavana (AP) bt Sravya Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-1; Amrita Mukherjee (WB) bt Sneha Reddy (Mah) 6-3, 6-2; Vaidehi Bhagvat (Mah) bt Namita Bal (Mah) 6-3, 6-2; Sharon S Paul (TN) bt Abhilasha Ahuja (Har) 6-0, 6-1.

UNI