Gurleen upsets top seed to make semis at KSLTA-AITA event
Bengaluru, Oct 27 : Gurleen Kaur Khanuja today kept her cool when it was required the most to stun the top seed Sanskriti Lal to make it to the Girls semifinals of the KSLTA-AITA TS 7 Under-14 tournament, an event on the Tattvam Junior Tour, which is being held here.
The 12-year-old won 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Meanwhile in the Boys category, none of the seeded players made it to the last four stages. Abhradeep Bhattacharya who had upset the top seed yesterday, scalped sixth seed Aditya Narayanan 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 6-2.
And, Arihant Kaul ousted eight seed Aahil Ayaz with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. Qualifier Yash Panchaxari scripted a fine comeback 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 win against fifth seed Kristo Babu while Dhakshish Aryan sent home seventh seed Ananth Krishnan after posting a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Gurleen, the unassuming seventh standard student of St Francis Xavier Girls High School showed signs of grit and composure against her fancied rival and raced to a 5-2 lead before Sanskriti made a fightback by winning the next two games.
However, Gurleen managed to win the rest of the two games to pocket the first set. The second set saw her lose concentration and was down 1-4 before she pulled back and levelled at 5 as the set went into a tie-breaker after both held their respective serves. The tall lass signed off with a cross court winner.
Second seed Arzan Khorakiwala outplayed Adya Chaurasia 6-2, 6-0 while third seed Avval Vivekanandan was stretched by Pooja Nagaraj 5-7, 6-4, 6-0 in the other quarterfinal.(UNI)