Pro Tennis League: Ichiban Samurai clinches third win

With its second win from three matches, Lucknow ended with a negative points difference of two, which could help it make the cut for the semifinals along with Sankara Stag Babolat Yoddhas.

Nitin Kumar Sinha played a critical role for Ichiban Samurai in the Pro Tennis League in Delhi on Saturday. | Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Nitin Kumar Sinha stepped it up for Ichiban Samurai to help the team to its third victory, a thumping 96-64 triumph over Mumbai Acers in the Harven Pro Tennis League at the DLTA Complex on Saturday.

After Rushil Khosla and Gauri Mangaonkar had put the Samurai in a strong position with wins over Aarush Nitture and Navy Dabas respectively, Nitin helped the team to a sparkling finish by beating Siddhant Banthia 17-13 in singles and winning the doubles with Rushil 20-10, in expanding the margin of victory.

Samurai wound up with a cumulative points difference of 56. In the race for the second semifinal spot from the group, Gurgaon Sapphires outclassed Indraprastha Warriors 100-60 late into the evening.

Mumbai Acers closed with a negative points difference of 44, and thus crashed out of the reckoning for qualification.

In the other group, Lucknow Aviators asserted itself with a 86-74 win over DMG Delhi Crusaders thanks mainly to the sparkling fare from Anirudh Chandrasekar. Though deemed a doubles specialist, Anirudh won his singles match 19-11 against Vishnu Vardhan. He later combined with Shivank Bhatnagar to score a 17-13 win over Vishnu and Parikshit Somani.

The victory was of no help as Sankara Stag Babolat Yoddhas and Paramount Proec Tigers qualified for the semifinals with points difference of 38 and 18 respectively.

The results (league):

Group-A: Ichiban Samurai bt Mumbai Acers 96-64 (Sahaja Yamalapalli tied Vaishnavi Adkar 10-10; Rushil Khosla bt Aarush Nitture 17-3; Gauri Mangaonkar bt Navy Dabas 14-6; Sahaja & Dilip Mohanty tied Vaishnavi & PC Vignesh 10-10; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Siddhant Banthia 17-13; Sahaja & Gauri lost to Vaishnavi & Navy 8-12; Nitin & Rushil bt Siddhant & Aarush 20-10).

Gurgaon Sapphires bt Indraprastha Warriors 100-60 (Sharmada Balu lost to Soha Sadiq 9-11; Maan Kesharwani bt Suvrat Mall 17-3; Ruma Gaikaiwari bt Riya Sachdeva 11-9; Sharmada & Suresh Krishna bt Soha & VM Ranjeet 12-8; Rithvik Bollipalli bt Mukund Sasikumar 17-13; Sharmada & Ruma bt Soha & Riya 11-9; Rithvik & Maan bt Mukund & Suvrat 23-7).

Group-B: Lucknow Aviators bt Paramount Proec Tigers 86-74 (Kashish Bhatia bt Sravya Shivani 12-8; Shivank Bhatnagar bt Parikshit Somani 12-8; Diva Bhatia lost to Divya Ungrish 9-11; Kashish Bhatia & Aditya Khanna tied Sravya Shivani & Indra Kumar Mahajan 10-10; Anirudh Chandrasekar bt Vishnu Vardhan 19-11; Kashish & Diva lost to Sravya & Divya 7-13; Anirudh & Shivank bt Vishnu & Parikshit 17-13).

Sankara Stag Babolat Yoddhas bt Delhi DMG Crusaders 87-73 (Sowjanya Bavisetti tied Jennifer Luikham 1010; Vansh Bisht lost to Sarthak Suden 9-11; Sahira Singh bt Somya Arya 13-7; Sowjanya & Pulkit Mishra bt Jennifer & Vivek Shokeen 11-9; Arjun Kadhe tied Karan Singh 15-15; Sowjanya & Sahira bt Jennifer & Somya 12-8; Arjun & Vansh bt Karan & Sarthak 17-13).