Sahaja Yamalapalli and Rushil Khosla gave a resounding start for Ichiban Samurai which cruised thereafter to an 89-71 victory over Indraprastha Warriors in a group-A league match of the Harven Pro Tennis League at the DLTA Complex on Friday.
Sahaja beat Soha Sadiq 17-3 and Rushil, the reigning national junior champion, strengthened the position for the team by beating Suvrat Mall 14-6. Thereafter, Indraprastha fought back a bit through the mixed doubles team of Soha and VM Ranjeet, and Mukund Sasikumar asserting his game against Nitin Kumar Sinha.
Eventually, Ichiban sealed the contest with Nitin and Rushil beating Mukund and Suvrat 18-12.
It was the second victory for Ichiban as it had beaten Gurgaon Sapphires 83-77 overnight.
In the other group, Sankara Stag Babolat Yoddhas scored a 95-65 win over Lucknow Aviators. It was the first victory for Babolat Yoddhas as the team had lost to Paramount Proec Tigers in the opening match.
It was the first loss for Lucknow after it had beaten DMG Delhi Crusaders earlier.
The top two teams from the two groups will make the semifinals, after the last set of league matches on Saturday. Both the semifinals and final are scheduled for Sunday.
The results (league):
Group-A: Ichiban Samurai bt Indraprastha Warriors 89-71 (Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Soha Sadiq 17-3; Rushil Khosla bt Suvrat Mall 14-6; Gauri Mangaonkar bt Riya Sachdeva 12-8; Sahaja & Dilip Mohanty lost to Soha & VM Ranjeet 6-14; Nitin Kumar Sinha lost to Mukund Sasikumar 12-18; Sahaja & Gauri on par with Soha & Riya 10-10; Nitin & Rushil bt Mukund & Suvrat 18-12).
Group-B: Sankara Stag Babolat Yoddhas bt Lucknow Aviators 95-65 (Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Kashish Bhatia 11-9; Vansh Bisht on par with Shivank Bhatnagar 10-10; Sahira Singh bt Diva Bhatia 13-7; Sowjanya & Pulkit Mishra bt Kashish Bhatia & Aditya Khanna 13-7; Arjun Kadhe bt Anirudh Chandrasekar 21-9; Sowjanya & SAhira bt Kashish & Diva 11-9; Arjun & Vansh bt Anirudh & Shivank 16-14).
