Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Shlok Ail put in a dogged performance and battled his way into the quarterfinals of the boys under-18 singles at the ISC-Muscat Pharmacy Open Junior Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club (ISC).
In the second round tie, Shlok shrugged off an early deficit when Tyler Blake fired on all cylinders and broke him at love to race to a 3-0 lead and it could have been 4-0 but Shlok saved two break points to get on the score board.
Tyler continued to play with confidence and broke again for a commanding 6-2 advantage. Shlok upped his game and uncharacteristic unforced errors from Tyler saw Shlok break in the ninth and eleventh games and held to level at six games all.
Shlok broke for the crucial 7-6 lead as Tyler tried hard to save the match. Shlok saved a break point and served out to book a berth in tthe quarterfinals.
The top seed in the boys under-18 singles, Yash Tanna tamed Ayvret van Waveren to enter the semifinals. In the quarterfinals between two hard hitters, Yash defeated the hard-serving American 8-3 for a place in the last four.
Advait Sreekumar will take on Charlie Senhausser in the final of the under-10 singles. In the semifinals, Advait downed Russian Rita Malakhova 8-1 while Swiss lad Charlie Sennhauser was in superb touch and defeated upcoming Omani Aisha Al Busaidi 8-1 in the second semifinal.
Kaavya Jayakumar and Kira Malakhova have advanced to the final of the girls under-12 singles. In the semifinals, Kaavya got the better of Aisha Al Busaidi 6-0, 6-1 while Kira overcame the challenge of the hard-working Ananya Chaudhary 6-3.
