Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Debasis Sahoo showed his fighting qualities to overcome Aashravya Mehra in the boys’ U-18 semifinal of the J30 Bhubaneswar ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors meet on Thursday.
The top-seeded Sahoo bagged two tie-breakers in between losing the second set to clinch a 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 7-6 (7-3) victory.
Sahoo will face fellow-India Praneel Sharma for the winner’s trophy at Kalinga Stadium Tennis Centre on Friday. Praneel was also taken the distance in his semifinal, as he rallied a one-set deficit to knock out Shanker Heisnam 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
The girls’ U-18 final will pit India’s Prisha Nikhil Shinde against Priyanka Rana of the US.
Prisha bundled out top-seeded Laxmisiri Dandu 7-5, 6-3, while Priyanka staged a fine comeback to oust India’s Saumya Ronde 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles semifinals
Girls: Laxmisiri Dandu & Priyanka Rana bt Ishi Maheshwari & Saumya Ronde 1-6, 6-1, 10-7; Aakruti Sonkusare Narayan & Sohini Sanjay Mohanty bt Aishwarya Jadhav & Mahika Khanna 6-0, 6-1.
Boys: Ojas Mehlawat & Adhiraj Thakur bt Aditya Mor & Praneel Sharma 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (1-7), 10-5; Rohith Hari Balaji Gobina Gobinath & Thirumurugan Viswanathan bt Pradyumna Singh Tomar & Om Verma 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 10-7.
