Paras, Nandini capture under-18 AITA titles

AHMEDABAD: Tennis is growing big in the city and a proof of that was seen when players from all over the national and even from United Kingdom flew down to Ahmedabad to take part in the AITA Championship Series under-18 boys' and girls' tennis tournament recently.Meanewhile, Paras Dahiya and Nandini Sharma won the boys' and girls' singles titles respectively in the meet that was conducted at the Ahmedabad International Sports Academy (AISA).In the boys' singles final, top seed Paras of Haryana easily got past the second seed Mayukh Rawat of United Kingdom 6-2, 6-4 to take home the title.In earlier rounds, Paras, who got a bye in the first round, started his campaign impressively by beating Prasham Mody 6-4 in the second round before breezing past Himash Maheta 6-3 in the pre-quarter final.In the quarter final, the AISA trainee had to fight hard to defeat Ayush Deswal of Delhi 7-3 before he edged out Mohnish Shah of Gujarat 9-4 in the semifinal.Meanwhile in the girls' category, the seventh seeded Nandini Sharma of Punjab had a wonderful run in the tournament to walk away with the title. She beat Vidula Reddy of Karnataka 6-2, 6-3 in the final to stamp her authority.Nandini was at her best throughout the tournament as she thrashed the top seed and local favourite Rutvi Shah 7-0 in the quarter final stage. That set the tone for the youngster as she later on defeated Priyanka Rodericks of Maharashtra 9-2 in the semis to reach the final.