Telangana players Ponnala Siddharth and Taha Kapadia were triumphant at the All India Tennis Association men’s tennis tournament played in Hyderabad. While Siddharth was crowned the men’s singles champion, Taha teamed up with Jayesh Pungliya of Maharashtra to take the doubles crown.
In the men’s singles final, fifth-seeded Siddharth was in top form, defeating a gritty Nitin Gunduboina, the unseeded player from Telangana, in straight sets 7-5, 7-5.
In the doubles summit clash, Taha and Jayesh — seeded second — proved too good for the pair of Rohit Rampuria of West Bengal and Karnataka’s Shane Biddaiah, winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.
Siddharth’s victory denied Nitin a fairytale finish. Nitin had been hugely impressive in the tournament, stunning Karnataka’s seventh seed L. Harsha in the second round before toppling the top-seeded Ansu Kumar Bhuyan of Odisha in the quarterfinals. He then capped it all with an upset win over the third seed from Andhra Pradesh, Kondiri Srinivas, in the semifinals.
Siddharth, on the other hand, had an uneventful time on his way to the final but any lack of experience playing high-pressure matches was offset by his undeniably superior brand of tennis in the title clash.
Nitin, perhaps feeling the pressure, had an erratic first serve throughout. None of the big serves which saw him blaze into the final were on show against Siddharth, who displayed remarkable consistency and composure throughout.
There was not much to choose between the two with regards to the scoreline in the first set. At 5-5, it looked set for a tie-breaker when Siddharth broke Nitin before holding his serve to take the opening set.
Play was more interesting in the second set. Siddharth broke Nitin early — in the third game — but Nitin hit back immediately to level the score at 2-2. Both players held their respective serves till 5-5 when Siddharth broke his opponent’s serve to go ahead 6-5. He then kept his cool to serve out the match and in doing so, lifted the trophy.
It was a more straight forward win for Taha and Jayesh. After clinching the opening set 6-4, the duo claimed the second 6-3 for a comprehensive victory.
Abhaya, Nirali in semis
Abhaya, Nirali, Srihitha and Apurva stormed into the girls under-10 semifinals of the Aster Minds State Ranking tennis tournament being played by the Ace Tennis Academy in Hyderabad. In the first match, Abhaya was quick to get off the blocks as she defeated Ratna 6-0 with consummate ease.
In the other match, Nirali overcame a stubborn opponent in Srivalli, eventually defeating her 6-3. Srihitha on the other hand had no problems in overcoming Soumya, beating her 6-2. Apurva also made short work of Malishka as she beat her 6-2 to advance.
In the girls under-14 quarterfinals, Nirmayi thumped Jwelitta 6-0, Sonali got the better of Somitha 6-1, Aashritha outshone Anisha 6-3 and Khushi knocked out Inika 6-2 to make the last-four round. In the girls under-12 pre-quarterfinal, Abhaya edged past Somitha in a tie-breaker 6-5 (7-2); Aira drubbed Srivally 6-2; Srihitha beat Aditi 6-4; Inika battered Abhijisya 6-0; Nirmayi nailed Nairali 6-2 and Sukritha Sri beat Neha T. 6-0.
