Zeel Desai wriggles past Akanksha Nitture
The Hindu
Shruti Ahlawat cruises past Soha Sadiq
Top seed Zeel Desai found herself in a spot of trouble before beating Akanksha Nitture 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-3 in the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis pre-quarterfinals at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, on Thursday.
After a slow start when she was down 0-3, Zeel recovered to be in the driver’s seat at 5-3 in the opening set, but did not get into any rhythm or consistency against a clever opponent who used the drop shots and stroked firmly into the corners with telling effect.
Despite being exasperated with her inability to adjust to the pace and bounce of the synthetic court, after having played on clay last week with considerable success, Zeel showed character to hang on and find her way to the quarterfinals.
At 3-3 in the decider, when she had fought back from 1-3, Akanksha missed a game point after saving three breakpoints. Zeel pressed hard with sharp strokes to pull through.
In the quarterfinals, Zeel will play Sathwika Sama who took the defensive game to a different level in outwitting left-hander Smriti Bhasin in two tight sets.
Shrivalli Bhamidipaty was in explosive form as she outplayed Humera Baharmus for the loss of four games. She will next challenge third seed Punnin Kovapitukted of Thailand.
The young Shruti Ahlawat continued to impress as she cruised past Soha Sadiq, who was troubled by a heel injury. She will meet Yubarani Banerjee who overcame initial resistance from Sharmada Balu to win for the loss of five games.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.