Top-seeded Sanjana Sirimalla of Telengana and Haryana’s fifth seed Krishan Hooda clinched their maiden national crowns winning the girls’ and boys’ singles finals respectively in the CCI 13th Ramesh Desai Memorial All India Nationals Under-16 Tennis Tournament 2019, organized by the Cricket Club of India and played at the club’s tennis courts on Saturday evening.
From ( L to R) Haryana’s Renne Singla the girls’ singles runner-up, top-seeded Sanjana Sirimalla of Telengana the girls’ singles champion, Haryana’s fifth seed Krishan Hooda the boys’ singles champion and Punjab’s Dhruv Tangri the boy’s singles runner-up proudly pose with their trophies during the prize distribution function of the CCI 13th Ramesh Desai Memorial All India Nationals Under-16 Tennis Tournament 2019.
The Hyderabad-based Sanjana, who is India number one ranked player in the under-16 category, outshone Haryana’s seventh seed Renne Singla, by coasting to victory in straight sets. The tall 5-feet 9-inch Sanjana, who trains at the Sanjay Tennis Academy, was dominant from the start and called the shots right through against her rival from Gurgaon before closing out the match at 6-3, 6-1 in about 90 minutes.
On the adjacent court, Krishan bounced back after losing the first set to get past Punjab rival and fourth seed Dhruv Tangri in three hard-fought sets in the boys’ final.
The Rohtak-based Krishan who trains at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Academy started nervously and went down losing the opening set. But, he managed to come to grips with himself and followed the strategies chalked out by his coaches and did well to turn things around and snatch a deserving 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over his Ahmedabad-based rival.
Hooda was pleased with his performance and shed tears of joy after hitting a cross-court winner to seal his win. “Last year I had lost in the pre-quarters here and coming back this year It feel good to win my maiden National title. The victory is even more sweeter as this my last year in this age group,” said Hooda.