After being jointly tied at 87 points with Delhi and Chennai , the Finecab Hyderabad Strikers produced a dominating performance to outclass Delhi Binny’s Brigade winning the game 55-35 and advancing to the semi-finals of the 2nd Kotak Mahindra Bank Tennis Premier League held at the Celebrations Sports Club.
Hyderabad team after reaching the semis of the 2nd Kotak Mahindra Bank Tennis Premier League played at Celebration Club Andheri.
Hyderabad got off to a winning start with Mariyappan Durai winning against Bala 6-4 in the wheelchair category. The U-14 boys and U-18 Girls both faced tough opposition but did well to settle for a draw and keep their team in the lead. Women’s singles tie was the most interesting as India No 1 Ankita Raina from Delhi Binny’s Brigade was up against India No 2 Ria Bhatia representing Hyderabad Strikers. Both the players matched each other in all aspects of the game. Both Ankita and Riya bounced back from after losing back to back points eventually settling for a draw at 15-15, leaving the Men’s team to close out the game. The men’s game was anti climactic with Mohit Mayur and Prajwal Dev completely dominating Saket Myneni and Nitin Singha defeating them 20-10 to sail into the semis with a 20 point lead.
In another match, Punjab Bulls topped the table despite losing their tie against Gujarat Panthers 44-46. After losing the Wheelchair match by 4 points, Gujarat Panthers bounced back winning the Boys U-14 tie 7-3 to neutralise the lead. Unfortunately, Akanksha Nitture and Bhakti Parwani were not able to capitalize on the opportunity and lost to Prerna Vichare / Gargi Pawar putting Punjab in lead ahead of the crucial matches. In the Women’s singles tie, Mahak Jain gave it her all and dominated the game with a 15-5 lead but Pranjala Yadlapalli managed to refocus and pull her team from the brink of certain defeat scoring 7 back to back points before going down 13-17 . It was upto Somdev and Dakshineshwar Suresh to take Hyderabad over the line and they played all the shots in the book to defeat Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Manish Sureshkumar 16-14 and make the semis. Hyderabad were only one point behind the table toppers Punjab at the end of the league stage .
Results
Finecab Hyderabad Strikers bt Delhi Binny’s Brigade 55-35(Wheelchair : Mariyappan Durai bt Bala 6-4, BD U-14 Ayush Bhatt / Sharan bt Manan Nath / Bhavya Singhmar 5-5;GD U-18; Saisa Aher / Renee Singh drew to Vanishka Choudhary / Humera Baharmas 5-5;WS: Ria Bhatia drew to Ankita Raina 15-15; MD; Mohit M / Prajwal D bt Saketh M / Nitin Singha 20-10.
Pune Warriors bt Chennai Stallions 49-41 ( Wheelchair: Sada Shivam K lost to Anil Almeida 4-6, BD U-14 Arunava Majumdar / Adith Amarnath bt Dhananjay Athreya / Harsh Fogar 9-1;GD U-18 : Kaavya Sawhney / Smriti Bhasin bt Sanjana Sirimalla / Sarah Dev 8-2;WS: Rutuja Bhosale lost to Zeel Desai 13-17; MD; Purav Raja / Siddhath drew to Vijay P / Kunal Anand 15-15
Gujarat Panthers bt Punjab Bulls 46-44 ( Wheelchair: Karthik Karunakaran lost to Shekar Veeraswamy 3-7, BD U-14 Agreeya Yadav / Nithin Baalaji bt Aayushan Arjeria / Jasmeet Duhan 7-3;GD U-18 : Akanksha Nitture / Bhakti Parwani lost to Prerna Vichare / Gargi Pawar 3-7 ;WS: Mahak Jain bt Pranjala Y 17-13; MD; Somdev / Dakshineshwar Suresh bt Jeevan / Manish 16-14
Mumbai Leon Army bt Bengaluru Spartans 46-44 ( Wheelchair: Suresh lost to Alexander James 3-7, BD U-14 Navya Verma / Prajwal lost to Aditya Rathi / Kavan Karthik 2-8;GD U-18 : Bela Tamhankar / Reshma Maruri bt Sandeepti Rao/Laxshmi Sahithi 8-2 ;WS: Sojanya Bavisetti btJennifer Luikham 20-10; MD; Niki P / Aryan G lost to Vishnu V/Ishaque E 13-17