Yuki shine, as girls' challenge ends with Sweta exit

Kolkata, Jan 17 (UNI) Wild card entrant Yuki Bhambri brought about a major upset today, when he defeated fourth seed Akash Gujarati in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 at the ONGC-ITF Juniors tennis meet, being held at the the DKS Sports Complex here.

In another exciting match, eighth seed Sweta Solanki lost to Russian Nanuli Pipiya in a marathon three setter, 6-2, 0-6, 6-7 (3-7) in 152 minutes.

Upsets ruled the day today, as qualifier Sundhanwa Sitaram ousted third seed B Vikram Reddy 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. Another qualifier Christopher Marquis, a trainee of the Mahesh Bhupathi academy, ousted fifth seed Thai Khunpol Issara 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in 95 minutes.

In the girls' section, fourth seed Nigora Sirojiddinova of Uzbekistan was defeated by the Ukraine's Yuliya Golbobodko 6-1, 6-4.

Seventh seed Nicha Lertpitaksinchai of Thailand was ousted by the Ukraine's Alyona Sotnikova in 54 minutes 2-6, 1-6.

Boys' second seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran made a remarkable comeback after losing the first set 4-6 to Agnel Gladwin Peter. Prajnesh took the second and third sets 6-0, 6-0 to book a place in quarter finals.

Top seeds, however, had it easy as Rifat Biktyakov of Uzbekistan advanced in the boys' section, beating wild carder Sriram Balaji Narayanswamy 6-4, 6-2, and Jessy Rompies of Indonesia won her match against Russian Olga Makhova 6-2, 6-0.

In a match that saw Sweta put up some gutsy display till she started having trouble with her back in the third set, the Russian's never-say-die spirit finally won the day. Pipiya too seemed to be suffering from cramps, but in the end, her superior fitness prevailed. But Sweta was impressive with her powerful backhand.

The match was full of fireworks with disputes aplenty.

The first set had four breaks. Sweta lost her serve in the fourth game and broke Nanuli in the third, fifth and seventh to take the set 6-2.

In the second set Nanuli came back very strongly and took the set at love.

Nanuli served four aces and one double fault while Sweta served two double faults. In the third set Nanuli recovered from a 15-40 deficit to take the first game.

In the fourth game Sweta lost her serve but broke back in the next. The set went with serves after that and ended in tie-break where Nanuli proved better than Sweta and took the match. With Sweta's exit, Indian challenge in the girls' section came to an end.

UNI