Mumbai:
Fifth seed Krishna Hooda fought back to oust Haryana state rival and second seed Chirag Duhan and enter the final of the 13th Ramesh Desai Memorial Under-16 Tennis Nationals Friday.
Hooda carved out a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over his higher ranked opponent in a boys’ singles semi-final match at the Cricket Club of India here.
Hooda will meet fourth seed Dhruv Tangri of Punjab in the final Saturday.
In the second semi-final, Tangri got the better of Haryanas ninth seed Karan Singh 6-4, 7-5 to book a place in the summit clash.
In contrast, the girls semi-final contests turned out to be tame affairs.
Top seed Sanjana Sirimalla of Telangana sent Haryanas eighth seeded Pari Singh crashing to a 6-1, 6-1 defeat.
In the second semi-final, Haryanas seventh seed Renne Singla tamed unseeded Naisha Srivastav of Karnataka 6-1, 6-3.
Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded combination of Renne Singla from Haryana and Vaishnavi Adkar of Maharashtra defeated the top-seeded Maharashtra pair of Rutuja Chaphalkar and Hrudaya Shah 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 to clinch the girls doubles crown.
In the boys doubles final, Karnatakas Nikhil Niranjan and Madhya Pradeshs Denim Yadav combined effectively to tame the Haryana duo of Ajay Singh and Krishan Hooda by coasting to 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Results: Girls doubles (finals): Renne Singla (HR)/ Vaishnavi Adkar (MH) beat Rutuja Chaphalkar(MH)/Hrudaya Shah (MH) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9.
Boys doubles (finals): Nikhil Niranjan (KA)/Denim Yadav (MP) beat Ajay Singh (HR)/Krishan Hooda (HR) 6-3, 6-4.
