Bhubaneswar: Yashraj Nayak and Nemha S Kispotta of Odisha emerged U-14 boys’ and girls’ singles champions respectively while another local Aarsha Patel clinched the U-16 girls’ crown in the AITA-OTA Talent Series tennis tournament, which concluded at the Kalinga Stadium tennis complex here, Friday
Fifth seed Yashraj prevailed over Md Rasheduddin of West Bengal 7-5, 6-4 in straight sets while fourth seed Nemha overcame compatriot Sohini S Mohanty 6-4, 6-4. In the U-16 final, Aashra came back from a set down to beat statemate Simram Neha Ekka 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-1.
The Odisha doubles pairs of U-16 boys’ and girls’ also emerged champions defeating their respective opponents. In the girls’ segment, the Aarsha-Nemha pair defeated Oindrilla Sen West Bengal and Simrah 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 while Rahul Behera teamed up with Sangram Kumar Patra to beat Arnav Manral of West Bengal and Yashraj 6-0, 5-7, 10-7 in the boys’ segment.
However, it was a bad day for Debabrata Pradhan and Stevan Ankit Ekka of Odisha as they had to be satisfied with a runners-up trophy losing tamely to the second seed West Bengal duo of Rahul Chatterjee and Rasheduddin 0-6, 0-6 in the U-14 boys’ doubles. Sangram also lost to Wyatt O’Brien of West Bengal 2-6, 4-6 to finish second best in the U-16 boys’ singles.
