KATHMANDU, Feb 14: All three Nepali players faced defeats in the singles categories at ongoing Nepal ITF Junior U-18 Tennis Tournament's Circuit Two on Tuesday.
Disappointing day for Nepali players in junior tennis
Samyak Bhushan Bajracharya lost to Indian opponent Ishan Sethi in double bagel in the boys event while Abhilasha Bista and Ira M Raut also were defeated by Indian players Kiran Kalkal and Gauri Bhagta 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1, 7-6 (1) respectively in the girls event. All the winners advanced to the second round.
Similarly in the other matches of the boys singles event played at Satdobato's tennis court, Indian duo Dipin Wadhwa and Aditya Ayer also emerged victorious as they defeated Britain's Kyle Stocker 7-6 (2), 6-4 and compatriot Arnav Pathange 6-3, 6-3. In another match of same event China's Guanglin Wen overcame the challenge of Aditya Satpathy of India 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. All the winners from the event reached to the second round.
In the girls' singles category, Thailand's Punnin Kovapitukted and Mingqiao Yang of China also made to the second round defeating Mio Kozaki of Japan and India's Yashaswini Panwar 6-0, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-1 respectively.
Meanwhile in the boys and girls doubles categories, Nepali players managed to produce victories. In the boys doubles the Nepali pair of Pranav Khanal and Renjen Lama faced 6-4, 6-1 defeat to the Indian pair of Arnav Pathange and Aryan Pathange. Similarly the pair comprising Nepal's Sakchham Karki and Pratyush Mohanty of India was defeated by India's Theerthha S Macherla and Kabir Manrai 6-0, 6-2. In another match of the same event the pair of Nepal's Saurav Raj Pandey and Rudrakhsa Rishi Mitra faced 6-1, 6-2 defeat to the Indian pair comprising of Gunjhan Jhadav and Atharva Sharma. Likewise another Nepali player Samrakshak Bhushan Bajracharya paired with Hong Kong's Mathew Yee faced 6-4, 6-4 defeat to India's Aditya Iyer and Piyush S Salekar. The victorious boys pairs reached to the second round.
In the girl's doubles event, Nepali pair of Anne Mathema and Catherine Mathema was beaten by the Indian pair of Annika Kannan and Janvi Patel 6-0, 6-2 while another Nepali pair of Rana siblings of Mayanka and Mahika faced 6-1, 6-3 loss to China's Zongyu Li and Jing Yang.
Similarly, the pair of Abhilasha Bista and Ira M Rawat was beaten by the India's Gauri Bhagia and Malvika Shukla 5-7, 6-2 (10-6) while another Nepali pair of Bhibuti Karki and Bijisha Shrestha faced 7-5, 6-2 defeat to the Indian pair of Richa Chougule and Kiran Kalkal. All the winning pairs advanced to the second round.
