Nagal, Sneha in line for double crowns

MUMBAI: Delhi boy Sumit Nagal and Maharashtra girl Snehadevi Reddy lined themselves up for a double crown each by reaching the finals of the respective singles and doubles events in the Ramesh Desai memorial junior (Under-16) tennis nationals organised by MSLTA on Friday.
Boys seventh seed Nagal outplayed Hardeep Singh Sandu of Tamil Nadu 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-final and earned a shot at top seed Abdulla Shaikh of Maharashtra in Saturday's final.
Shaikh got past a fighting 14-year-old Sahil Deshmukh, a member of the MSLTA vision programme, 6-7 7-5 7-5 in the other semi final after the latter frittered away a 5-3 lead in the decider.
Nagal partnered Deshmukh to lift the doubles crown with a 6-4 1-6 11-10 victory over Fatehdeep Singh (Punjab) and A K Saradhi (Karnataka) in the final.
In the Under-16 girls semis, second seed Snehadevi scored a 6-2, 6-4 win over fourth seed Simran Kaur Sethi while third seed C Sao Samitha of Tamil Nadu chalked out a one-sided 6-4, 6-3 win over Aandrita Deb of Bengal.
Snehadevi partnered Karnataka's Dhruti Venugopal to capture the doubles crown by putting out Tahira Bhatti of Delhi and Devanshi Bhimjiyani of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-3 in the final.