U-14 Talent Series tennis: Kothapalli, Sushmita win singles titles

Bengaluru, Feb 26 : Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli and Sushmita Ravi won the boys and girls singles titles, respectively, in the Tattvam KSLTA Under-14 Talent Series here on Friday.

In contrasting finals, Kothapalli overcame third seed Kshitij Aradhya 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 while Sushmita stopped giant-killer Disha Khandoji 6-4, 6-2 at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts.

The boys final looked evenly matched, with both players showing deftness in their movement across the court but committed silly mistakes, too.Kothapalli took the first two games before Aradhya not only levelled the scores, but went ahead 5-3.Aradhya broke Kothapallis serve in the eighth and served out for the set.Kothapalli, 13, achieved a crucial break in the fifth game of the second set to lead 3-2 and close out the set by winning the next three games in a row.In the deciding set, Kothapalli broke Aradhyas serve in the fifth game and led 4-2.But the Aradhya ensured that the scores were level by the 10th game.Once again Kothapalli achieved a break in the 11th before serving out for the match.

In the girls final, Sushmita, 13, was 3-0 up with a break in the second game of the first set before Disha came back strongly to restore parity.Sushmita, who used her serve and her forehand to good use, achieved one more break in the ninth game before taking the first set.A similar script followed in the second set until the fifth game, before Sushmita held to go up 4-2 and won the set without any further damage to win her third under-14 title.