Pendarkar, Rama Rao enter doubles semis in senior's tennis meet

Mumbai, Nov 20 (UNI) Wild card entrant Dr Pendarkar and Rama Rao, who are also the tournament organisers, stormed into the 55+ doubles semis beating their opponents from Andhra Pradesh M S Prakash and K S A Raju in the GVK AISTA Senior National Ranking Tennis Tournament played at Practennis, Andheri (W) here today.

The duo from Maharashtra played a marathon match, eventually winning the tie. They started by winning the first set easily 6-3, as the tall Pendarkar was constantly troubling the opponents with his big serve. The second set saw their opponents bouncing back in the match with a 6-2 win. The third set saw some great tennis, as both the teams didn't give their points easily. But in the end the match went into tiebreaker and the local team won the thriller 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (4).

In the 45+ category, Rana Rai and Mayur Vasant of Maharashtra won their quarter final tie dumping the Andhra Pradesh pair 6-2, 6-1.

Same was the case in the 65+ doubles category, top seed C B Raju and R Gautam of Andhra Pradesh beat their statesman M K Swamy and G S N Murthy 6-2, 6-4 to march ahead in the quarters. The third seeds K V A Raju and P Chand also dumped their opponents in straight sets.

Results: 45+ doubles: (Pre-quarters) 1-V R Raju (AP)/G K Raju (AP) bt R S Rao (AP)/L S N Raju (AP) 6-4, 6-3; M S Narayana (AP)/N V Swamy (AP) bt WC-B H S Raju (AP)/Verma (AP) 6-3, 6-2; 7-M P Prakash (AP)/P K Guptha bt M Suresh (AP)/ M V Swamy (GUJ) 6-4, 6-2; Rana Rai (MAH)/ Mayur Vasant(MAH) bt 4-P Manohar (AP)/Yogen Shah (MAH) 6-1, 6-0; V S Narsiman (MAH)/M Likhile (MAH) bt KS Raju (AP)/Koteshwar Rao (AP) 6-3, 7-5.

(Quarters) Rana Rai (MAH)/Mayur Vasant (MAH) bt S Netappa (AP)/ P Janardhan (AP) 6-2, 6-1.

55+ doubles: (Pre-quarters) M Varalayya (AP)/S D Kumar (AP) bt K S Rao (AP)/ DD Darshan (AP) 6-1, 6-2. (Quarters) APN Rao (AP)/ R Krishna (AP) bt M Varalayya (AP)/SD Kumar (AP) 6-1, 6-1; WC-Rama Rao (MAH)/Dr Pendarkar (MAH) bt M S Prakash (AP)/ K S A Raju (AP) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (4); A Ram Babu (AP)/Chatwal (DEL) bt D R Rao (AP)/ V Shahane (MAH) 6-2, 6-4.

65+ doubles: (Pre-quarters) P Gujrathi/ Seshadrinath (AP) bt S Sahay/ A V Dayandar 5-7, 7-6, 6-1. (Quarters) 1-C B Raju (AP)/ R Gautam (AP) bt M K Swamy (AP)/ G S N Murthy (AP) 6-2, 6-4; 3-K V A Raju (AP)/ P Chand bt S Parekh (GUJ)/S Bhagat (MAH) 6-2, 6-4; H D Balal/ Sunmeshwar (KAR) bt A Changappa (KAR)/N Rao (AP) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 2-M Murthy (AP) Dr V Prasad (AP) bt P Gujrathi/ Seshadrinath (AP) 6-1, 6-0.

UNI