AITA U-14 tennis: Nikhil beats top seed to enter semis

Bengaluru, March 24 (IANS) Nikhil Kurapati Sreenivas on Wednesday won a hard battle against top seed Tanussh Ghildyal to reach the boys' semi-finals of the MAT-AITA CS7 Under-14 tennis tournament.In a quarterfinal tie played here, Nikhil won 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6).Giant-killers Navin Sundram and Srikar Doni also advanced into the last-four stage with wins over Ananth Krishnan and Paul Charan Tej, respectively. Gandharv G.K., seeded fourth, was the lone seed left in fray after he beat Sanchith Sudhir Rao in a last-eight tie.In the girls' section, Anvi Puneganti scored an upset 6-2, 6-4 win over third seed Umam Ahmad to storm into the semi-finals. Top seed Harshini N. along with fourth seed Devanshee Prabhudesai of Maharashta and Tamil Nadu's Sai Ananya Varanasi also made it to the penultimate round.Results (seedings pre-fixed):Boys under-14 singles (pre-quarterfinals): Q-Nikhil Kurapati Sreenivas bt 1-Tanussh Ghildyal 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6); 4-Gandharv GK bt Sanchith Sudhir Rau 6-4, 6-2; Srikar Doni bt Paul Charan Tej 7-5, 6-2; Navin Sundram (TN) bt Ananth Krishnan 6-1, 6-2Girls under-14 singles (quarterfinals): 1-Harshini N bt Samrudhi (TN) 6-2, 6-2; 4-Devanshee Prabhudesai (MAH) bt Disha Behera 6-4, 6-2; Anvi Puneganti bt 3-Umam Ahmad 6-2, 6-4; Sai Ananya Varanasi (TN) bt Karthika Padma Kumar (KL) 2-6, 6-1, 6-2
--IANS qma/