Karthki sends Iciri packing, Prateek in final

bangalore: as has been her wont iciri rai, karnataka's best bet in the juniors, after having a rousing start just let loose her stranglehold over the match to be knocked out by karthiki bhat of maharashtra in the semifinal of the adidas-aita junior tennis tournament at the kslta courts on friday. the 14-year-old pune girl karthiki bhat will run into top seed nanditha chandrashekar of tamil nadu who dismantled her doubles partner preeti rao in straight sets 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).the pleasing point, however, for the locals was that s. prateek continuing his good run dethroned another seeded player, this time fourth seed m. jeevan of tamil nadu, to set up title clash with top seed rupesh roy of west bengal in the under-14 boys category. rupesh came over mid-game slump to overpower his statemate hrishikesh patasker 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. in the match between iciri and karthiki, the former pocketed the first set without much ado riding on the breaks in the 6th and 8th games. in the second set, however, karthiki, with a steady baseline game put the lanky local girl in all sorts of trouble. the bespectacled pune girl broke iciri in the first game and third game to build a 3-1 lead. though iciri broke back in the 7th game, there was no stopping karthiki who went on to claim the set at 6-2 to take the match into third set. in the final set, after conceding a 1-2 lead, iciri had a golden chance to level the score when she went up 40-0 in karthiki's serve. but the bangalore girl frittered away the opportunity losing the game. karthiki then closed out the set at 6-1 to book her place in the final. results (singles): all semis (girls u-14): karthiki bhat bt s preeti 6-3, 6-2; sandri gangotri bt punam reddy 6-4, 6-4. boys: s prateek bt m jeevan 6-2, 4-6, 6-4; rupesh roy bt hrishikesh patasker 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. girls u-18: nanditha chandrashekhar bt preeti rao 7-5, 7-6 (8-6); karthiki bhat bt iciri rai 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. boys: arun prakash bt c s mohanty 6-4, 6-3; chatwinder singh bt ravikrishna 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. doubles: boys u-18: arun prakash/vikram aditya menon bt manoj kumar sewa/dhrub kumar 6-4, 6-2; p vikas/ c s mohanty bt chatwinder singh/joginder kanekar 6-1, 6-3. girls: nivedita venkatesh/vandana murali bt noopur desai/johann fernandez 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); preeti rao/nandita chandrashekar bt alice joy/punam reddy 6-4, 6-2.