Ronit beats fourth seed Sarma; Kanika ousts U-12 top seed Tejasvini

Mumbai, May 16 (UNI) Ronit Bisht of Delhi broke his jinx against Kaza Vinaya Sarma of Andhra Pradesh to beat him for the first time in four encounters to upset the fourth seed 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(3) and enter the quarterfinals in the U-16 group of the Ramesh Desai Memorial National Tennis Tournament held at the MSLTA's G A Ranade Complex here today.

On a day when upsets were few, Kanika Vaidya of Maharashtra caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far sending the top seed in the Girls U-12 group Surya Tejasvini packing at 6-2, 6-2.

Vaidya, who has had much success playing in Singapore, has returned to India after a gap of two years. The last time she was here was in 2005 when she won the two titles in a row in Maharashtra. Vaidya will play fifteenth seed Jasmine Bajaj for a place in the quarter finals.

Ronit, who had played and won his pre-quarterfinal game in the Boys U-12 group only a short while ago, looked determined to take the game to Sarma. After the set went according to serve for the first eight games, a determined Bisht broke Sarma to take the first set 6-4. The effort seemed to have taken a toll on Bisht as he struggled to play with the same intensity he did in the first set.

Sarma was quick to notice this and moved the 12 year old about on the court. Bisht lost the set 6-2.

Sarma started the third set confidently taking the first two games. Bisht dug deep into his resources to hit back taking the next four games. Bisht squandered the chance to keep his nose ahead and almost lost the game when Sarma had match point 5-4. Bisht fought back yet again to force a tie breaker which he won 7-3 to make a surprise entry into the quarter finals. Bisht plays Mansingh Athare, who beat his elder brother Rohit 6-0, 6-2.

In the girls U-16 group top seed Kyra Shroff kicked off her campaign in the 2nd Round with an easy 6-1, 6-1 over Sharmada Balu of Karnataka.

Boys U-16 top seed Ronak Manuja was given a real scare by 15th seed S Sidharth. Sidharth won the first set in a tie break 7-6 but Manuja came back to win 6-4, 6-4.

Results: Boys U/16 (Pre Quarters): 1-Ronak Manuja (Mah) bt 15-S Sidharth (TN) 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4; 2-Sudhanwa Sitaram (TN) bt 14-S V Abhishek (AP) 6-0, 6-2; 3-Christopher Marquis (Mah) bt 13-Bibaswan Deb (WB) (6-2, 6-3; 16-Ronit Bisht (Del) bt 4-Kaza Vinaya Sarma (AP) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(3); 5-Lakshit Sood (UP) bt 11-Yash Deshmukh (Mah) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1; 6-Mansingh Athare (Mah) bt 12-Rohit Bisht (Del) 6-0, 6-2; 7-Samip Mehta (Guj) bt 9-Suraj Desai (Guj) 7-5, 6-2; 10-Chandril Sood (UP) bt 8-Chetan Pandit (AP) 7-6(2), 6-2.

Boys U/12 (Pre Quarters): 1-Ronit Bisht (UP) bt Neeraj Elangovan 6-0, 6-2; 2-Vishal Passi (Mah) bt 14-T Nehal (UP) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1; 3-Rohan Bhatia (Mah) bt A Kashyap (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; 4-S M Abdullah (AP) bt Rohit Tanwar (Del) 6-1, 6-0; 9-Ronak Jhawar (AP) bt 5-Abhishek Alla (AP) 6-4, 6-1; 6-Ansu Kumar Bhuyan (Ori) bt Atul Sri Patel (UP) 6-4, 6-4; 7-Rishab Agarwal (AP) bt 10-Digvijay Singh Naruka (Pun) 6-1, 6-4; Suraj H (Ker) bt 8-Anvit Bendre (Guj) 6-2, 6-3.

Girls U/16 (2nd Round): 1-Kyra Shroff (Mah) bt Sharmada Balu (Kar) 6-1, 6-1; 2-Gopika Kapoor (Del) bt Namita Bal (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; 3-Tanvi Shah (Mah) bt Vaniya Dangwal (Del) 6-2, 6-1; 4-Garima Vatwani (Del) bt Janeesh Kaur (Chd) 7-6(6), 7-6(3); 5-Rishika Sunkara (Del) bt Sansitha Nandkumar (TN) 6-4, 6-4; 6-Treta Bhattacharya (WB) bt Susita (Ori) 6-1, 7-5; 7-T Nilaya (AP) bt Pushpahasa Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-2; 8-Ashvarya Shrivastava (Mah) bt Shivani Singh (AP) 6-1, 6-2.

Girls U/12 (2nd Round): Kanika Vaidya (Mah) bt 1-Surya Tejasvini (AP) 6-2, 6-2; 2-Sansitha Nandakumar (TN) bt Tahira Bhatti (Del) 6-0, 6-0; 3-Teertha Iska (AP) bt S Swetha (TN) 6-2, 6-4; 5-Seeulee K Upadhaya (Ori) bt Anushka Rajkumar (Del) 6-0; 6-2; 6-Parminder Kaur (Cnd) bt Rutuja Bhosale (Mah) 6-4, 6-0; 7-Akshara Iska (AP) bt Kavita Mishra (Mah) 6-0, 6-0; 8-C Sai Samhitha (TN) bt Spurti Shivalingam (Kar) 6-3, 7-6(3).

UNI