Arjun Kadhe steered Proveri Supersmashers to the title by winning the mixed doubles with Daria Mishina and men’s doubles with Ramkumar Ramanathan, in convincing fashion, as the team recorded a 33-25 victory over Haryana Sapphires in the Pro Tennis League at the R.K. Khanna Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Vijay Sundar Prashanth provided a remarkable twist to the script for Sapphires as he beat Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-5(5) in the singles match. After Ramkumar had survived two match points on his serve in the tenth game to force the tie-break, Prashanth hit a superb return winner on the rise to set up the third match point in the tie break, and smashed an inside out forehand to close the contest.
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It was a high quality match, that brought Sapphires back into the game, as the teams were level 21-21 on the games won till then. Ashish Sinha had put Supersmashers ahead by beating Uddayvir Singh in the tie-break, and Sowjanya Bavisetti had got one back for Sapphries by winning the women’s singles against Daria Mishina.
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sowjanya led 3-0 in the mixed doubles before Arjun unleashed the magic in partnership with Daria to win the rubber 6-4. That set the tone of Supersmashers, before Prashanth brought the teams on par.
Arjun Kadhe and Ramkumar showed their class against the fine combination of Prashanth and Jeevan to win 6-3. Arjun once again stole the show, as he hit an ace on second serve to close the match. In the last rubber Supersmashers had to win just four games to lift the trophy. Ashish Khanna and Karan Srivastava blended power with craft to win 6-1 against Garvit Gupta and Arjun Uppal.
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It was an enjoyable evening for the spectators, especially for the many kids who had assembled from across the country for the National School Games tennis competition at the venue. Ramkumar Ramanathan was adjudged the "player of the tournament" for his all-round performance in singles and doubles.
The young Ashish Sinha who had captured everyone’s imagination with his energetic game was given the ‘best young player’ of the tournament award. Along with it, he was also presented Rs.100,000 from the AITA
Trust as a scholarship for the year.
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Sowjanya Bavisetti and Vijay Sundar Prashanth were adjudged the ‘player of the tournament’ in singles, in the women’s and men’s sections respectively. Saurabh Singh, Karan Srivastava and Arjun Kadhe were declared the best in their category of ex-professional, junior player and men’s doubles respectively.
The Commissioner of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Santosh Kumar Mall presented the prizes.
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