Indian juniors tumble at the US Open

The fact that the best hope, Zeel Desai, was not seeded proved costly, as she ran into the 14th seed and bowed out, after igniting some hopes early in the third set.

It may be recalled that Zeel had made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the pre-quarterfinals of Wimbledon this season.

The Indian hopes on the juniors evaporated quickly as they all went down in the first round of singles, even though all the girls did very well to fight in three sets, in the US Open.

The fact that the best hope, Zeel Desai, was not seeded proved costly, as she ran into the 14th seed and bowed out, after igniting some hopes early in the third set.

‘’Zeel’s serve was not up to the mark which allowed her opponent to put her on the defensive early in the point. Zeel fought well to take the second set as she was down 3-5’’, said coach Todd Clark, who has been instrumental in guiding Zeel in the last two years.

It may be recalled that Zeel had made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the pre-quarterfinals of Wimbledon this season.

‘’The turning point of the match was early in the third set when Zeel got an early break to go up 2-0, but could not capitalise’’, recalled Todd Clark.

There was more disappointment as Zeel could not compete in the doubles. ‘’Zeel was scheduled to play doubles with an American player. Unfortunately, the night before sign in, the player decided to change partners’’, said the coach.

Zeel would now fly into Thailand to compete in the Women’s circuit. Of course, there was some encouraging result for the Indian camp, as Siddhant Banthia in partnership with Shinji Hazawa of Japan fought his way into the second round of boys doubles.

Mihika Yadav and Mahak Jain were yet to play their first round of doubles in the girls section.

The results:

Junior boys (first round): Danny Thomas (US) bt Siddhant Banthia 6-1, 6-2.

Junior boys doubles (first round): Shinji Hazawa (Jpn) & Siddhant Banthia bt Lukas Greif & Govind Nanda (US) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9.

Junior girls (first round): Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (Col) bt Zeel Desai 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3; Nikki Redelik (US) bt Mihika Yadav 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Wang Xin Yu (Chn) bt Mahak Jain 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1.