C'wealth Youth Games: Siddhant Banthia and Zeel Desai progress

Defending champions, Siddhant Banthia and Zeel Desai made it to the individual semifinals and combined to make the mixed doubles semifinals as well, dropping only seven games in all.

Siddhant Banthia beat Matthew Stubbings of Papua New Guinea 6-1, 6-1 to set up a semifinal in the boys event against Hamish Stewart of Scotland.

The country’s best junior tennis players, Siddhant Banthia and Zeel Desai, stayed glued to their task of defending the medals in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas. The two made it to the individual semifinals and combined to make the mixed doubles semifinals as well, dropping only seven games in all. Siddhant Banthia beat Matthew Stubbings of Papua New Guinea 6-1, 6-1 to set up a semifinal in the boys event against Hamish Stewart of Scotland. In the girls quarterfinals, Zeel Desai beat Adetayo Sherifa Adetunji of Nigeria 6-3, 6-0 to set up a semifinal against Indianna Jane Spink of England. In the mixed doubles, Siddhant and Zeel beat Codie Schalk Van Schalkwyk and Georgina Carliz Moolman of Namibia 6-2, 6-0. The duo will next face Morgan Ellie Cross and James Mark Story of Wales. India had swept all the three gold medals through Sasi Kumar Mukund and Dhruthi Venugopal in the last edition in Samoa.