Kotak enters main draw

Mumbai, Apr 29 (UNI) Rushabh Kotak of Maharashtra enjoyed the advantage of home conditions to storm into the main draw, in the All India National Series and Maharashtra State Ranking Tennis Tournament 2007, co-sponsored by DHFL and IOCL, at Practennis, Andheri today.

Practennis lad Kotak, was one of the most impressive as he blasted his way past Anvit Bhendre of Gujarat 9-4 in the boys' under-16 third and final qualifying round.

Joining Kotak in the main draw were, Niraj Elangovan of Tamil Nadu and Chakma Manas Lomal of Assam after fashioning contrasting victories.

Elangovan endured a hard-fought 9-8 (2) tie-breaker win over Nihar Yeravdekar, while Lomal overcame Viveka Sashidharan of Tamil Nadu 9-5.

Yash Deshpande of Maharashtra and S P Prashant of Tamil Nadu advanced to the boys under-14 main draw with comfortable wins.

Results (final qualifying round): Nat Series: Boys U-16: Rushabh Kotak bt Anvit Bhendre (Guj) 9-4; Niraj Elangovan (TN) bt Nihar Yeravdekar 9-8 (2); Chakma Manas Lomal (Assam) bt Vivek Sashidharan (TN) 9-5; Vishal Salvi bt Anirudh Darp (Mah) 9-3, Nikunj Mehta bt Ponkshr Srinivas (Mah) 9-6.

Boys U-14: Sharman Shukla bt Aditya Vyas 9-1; Ryan Serrao bt Parthi Sarathi 9-3; Yash Deshpande (Mah) bt Yogesh Aher (Mah) 9-4; Karan Narala bt Datta Modhuriya 9-3; S P Prashant (TN) bt Ronit Patil 9-6.

Mah State Ranking: Boys U-12: Ishan Singh bt Karan Parekh 7-0; Yash Agarwal bt Kanak Kulkarni 7-0; Kshitij Gupt bt Anmol Malik 7-0; Dyle Fernandes bt Arnav Bhandari 7-4; Anirudh Topiwala bt Vinal Raja 7-0.

UNI