Nedunchezhiyan bags a double

The boys and girls' singles finals in the SAIL ITF Junior Grade 3 Tennis Tournament turned out to be one-sided affairs, at the Sector 10 tennis stadium in Chandigarh on Friday.

Top seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of India and fourth seed Amina Rakhim of Kazakhstan lifted the boys and girls titles respectively.

Jeevan claimed a double as in partnership with Vivek Shokeen, as the pair defeated Vaja Uzakov (Uzbekistan)/Stas Zoravsky (Russia) 6-3, 6-3 in the boys' doubles final.

Hitting his backhand fluently, left-handed Jeevan, ranked 43 in ITF, virtually did not face any resistance from third seed Xiao-Peng Lai of Hong Kong whom he beat 6-3, 6-0.

In the girls final, Amina was on top against Martina Lautenschlager of Switzerland. Martina looked nervous in the first set as she committed a number of unforced errors. She either returned into the net or long and struggled with her first serve. Amina won the first set at 6-2 without any trouble.

The Kazakh girl also won the next three games in a row to gain a 3-0 lead. At this stage, Martina started hitting on both sides which at times kept Amina rooted at one place. Watched by chief guest Punjab Governor Gen SF Rodrigues (Retd), Martina won three games in a row to level

the score at three-all. Then she broke Amina to take a 4-3 lead, which drew cheers from the spectators.

However, Martina again lapsed and lost her touch. Amina asserted her supremacy and won the next three games for the set and match. Amina's victory was worth 60 ITF points.

Boys' singles (final): 1-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Ind) bt. 3-Lai Xiao-Peng (Hong Kong) 6-3, 6-0.

Boys' doubles (final): 1-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/ Vivek Shokeen (Ind) bt Vaja Uzakov(Uzb)/ Stas Zoravsky (Russia) 6-3, 6-3.

Girls' singles (final): 4-Amina Rakhim (Kaz)  bt. Martina Lautenschilager (Sui) 6-2, 6-4.

Girls' doubles (final): Yanina Wickmayer/ Goele Lemmens (Bel) bt. Madura Ranganathan/ Sandhya Nagaraj (Ind) 6-0, 1-6, 7-5.