Suhitha Maruri fought hard to beat top seed Shruti Ahlawat 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) in the girls’ tennis semifinals in the Khelo India Youth Games at the Gymkhana Club on Friday.
In the final, Suhitha will play Akanksha Nitture who subdued Maharashtra State mate Vaishnavi Adkar for the loss of six games.
In the boys’ section, Rushil Khosla set up a title clash with Dhruv Hirpara. The absence of Chirag Duhan and Aman Dahiya, seeded No. 1 and 2 in the boys event was a blow for host Haryana, in both singles and doubles.
In the girls’ doubles, Lakshmi Prabha and Janani Ramesh stopped an all-Maharashtra final, by beating Akanksha and Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-4, 2-6, [11-9].
After the energy sapping duel against Shruti, it was understandable that Suhitha could not stretch herself further in doubles with sister Reshma. The Karnataka pair retired after two games against Vaishnavi and Sudipta Senthilkumar.
The results (semifinals): Boys: Dhruv Hirpara bt Parv Nage 6-3, 6-4; Rushil Khosla bt Daksh Prasad 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles: Kush Arjeria & Deep Munim w/o Aman Dahiya & Chirag Duhan; Daksh Prasad & Denim Yadav bt Dhananjay Athreya & Pragathese Shivashankar 6-4, 6-3.
Girls: Suhitha Maruri bt Shruti Ahlawat 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(1); Akanksha Nitture bt Vaishnavi Adkar 6-2, 6-4.
Doubles: Vaishnavi & Sudipta Senthilkumar bt Reshma & Suhitha 1-1 (retired); Lakshmi Prabha & Janani Ramesh bt Ruma Gaikaiwari & Akanksha 6-4, 2-6, [11-9].
