Shahbaaz stretched in National tennis series tourney

Mumbai, May 1 (UNI) Fancied Shahbaaz Khan of Maharashtra rallied past formidable Vishal Passi to advance to the boy's under-16 second round in the All India National Series and Maharashtra State Ranking Tennis Tournament 2007 at Practennis, Andheri here today.

In one of the keenest contests between quality players, Khan dropped the opening set in the tie-breaker and recovered splendidly in the next two sets to clinch the match 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3.

Both players are regulars at Practennis and enjoyed home conditions as Passi did well to snatch the opener for an early advantage. But Khan, who knows Passi's game, overcame the scorching heat to beat back Passi's challenge for a memorable win.

In another keen boy's under-16 first round, Pradeep Reddy beat back a late challenge to get past P. Prabhav 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) in an all-Andhra Pradesh contest.

In the Maharashtra State Ranking tournament, Sneha Reddy and Nikihl Passi of Practennis also enjoyed a rewarding day.

11-year-old Sneha, who received a wild card, sailed past Sripriya Sarraf of Bihar 6-0, 6-1 in the girls' under-14 first round. Later, she overcame Pune's Apoorva Barte 8-0 to advance to the under-12 second round.

Nikhil Passi made amends for his brother's defeat when he advanced to the boys' under-12 and under-10 third round.

Results: Nat. Series: Boys u-14 (2nd rd): Sharan Patil (Kar) bt Atul Patil (UP) 6-2, 6-1; Vinod Gowda (Kar) bt Abhishek Alla (AP) 6-2, 6-1, Rohit Bisht (Del) bt Acharya Bharadwaj (AP) 6-1, 6-0; Saurabh Patil (Mah) bt Suraj Konwar (Guj) 6-2, 6-3.

Girls u-14 (1st rd): Sneha Reddy bt Sripriya Sarraf (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1.

Boys u-16 (1st rd): Pradeep K. Reddy (AP) bt P. Prabhav (AP) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Y. Sriman (AP) bt Siddhant Deka (Assam) 6-4, 6-3; Chandril Sood (UP) bt Saurabh Patil (Mah) 6-1, 6-3; S. Siddharth (Del) bt K. Sai Siddharth (AP) 6-1, 6-1; Shabaaz Khan (Mah) bt Vishal Passi (Mah) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3.

Mah. State Ranking: Boys u-12 (2nd rd): Nikhil Passi bt Yash Lundia 8-7 (7-1); Suyash Nagpurkar bt Anirudh Topiwala 8-7 (3); Aditya Vyas bt Pranav Pathole 8-6; Rohan Bhatia bt Amir Khan 8-0.

Girls u-12 (1st rd): Sneha Reddy bt Apoorva Barte 8-0; Shaikh Shagufta bt Kavita Mishra 8-1; Wadhwa Harleen bt Shivani Desai 8-1; Jinsha Patel bt Sherlee Deshmukh 8-0.

Boys u-10 (2nd rd): Nikhil Passi bt Aryan Goveas 7-0; Sunny Khandre bt Mihir Damle 7-4; Varun Patere bt Rohan Bhave 7-1; Kunal Vazirani bt Arbaz Maniar 7-6.

Girls u-10 (2nd rd): Nandini Das bt Sherlee Deshmukh 7-0; Apoorva Barte bt Amrutha Zadge 7-2; Prabhuti Singhania bt Riya Bhatia 7-0; Raiya Ahmed bt Aboli Gogaari 7-6 (7-5).

UNI