Wild cards Ruma, Saina in last eight at tennis tournament

Pune: Wild cards Ruma Gaikaiwari and Saina Deshpande knocked out seeds to enter the girls singles quarterfinals of the MSLTA KPIT – Arun Wakankar Memorial ATF Asian under 14 Series Tennis Tournament here today.

In the girls second round, Ruma upset seventh seed Saumya Ronde 6-4,7-6(5), while Saina toppled eighth seed Kaashvi Thapliyal 6-2, 6-2 to enter the last eight.

In the boys section, fifth seed Daksh Agarwal struggled to get past Joshua Eapen 7-5,5-7,6-2, while Saharia came from loss of the opening set to survive against Ashwin Manikandan 4-6,7-5,6-2.

Top seed Shivam Kadam staved off a challenge from wild card Siddharth Marathe 6-7(4),6-2,6-0 to make it to the last eight stage.

The results: Boys Under 14 (2nd round): Shivam Kadam(IND)(1) bt (WC)Siddharth Marathe (IND)6-7(4),6-2,6-0; Daksh Agarwal (IND)(5) bt (Q)Joshua Eapen (IND)7-5,5-7,6-2; Anargha Ganguly (IND)(3) bt Ishan Jigali (IND)6-2,6-2; Manuel Josh(GBR)(6) bt Ananmay Upadhyay (IND)6-2,6-1; Manas Dhamne (IND) bt Samar Malhotra(IND)6-0, 6-3; Nithis Nallusamy (IND)(4) bt Pranav Gadgil (IND)6-1, 6-1; Omaansh Saharia (IND) bt Ashwin Manikandan (IND)4-6,7-5,6-2; Krishang Raghuvanshi (IND)(2) bt Varshith Kumar Marreddy (IND)6-0,7-5.

Girls under 14 (2ndround): Pari Singh(IND)(1) bt (WC)Kashish Bote (IND)6-3, 7-5; Ruma Gaikaiwari (IND) bt Saumya Ronde (IND)(7) 6-4,7-6(5); Shruti Ahlawat (IND)(3) btShrwani Khawale (IND) 6-1,6-1; Abinaya Sweeton(CAN)(6) bt Shubhangee Laxmi Shah(NEP)6-1, 6-1; Nandini Dixit(IND)(5) bt Gautami Khaire (IND)6-4, 6-2; (WC) Saina Deshpande (USA) bt Kaashvi Thapliyal (IND)(8) 6-2, 6-2; Veda Prapurna (IND)(4) bt Anya Jecob (IND)6-3, 6-4; Sonal Patil(IND) bt Rijul Sidnale (IND)7-6(6), 6-4.