The national under-14 champion lost to Suchde 2-9, 9-7, 6-9, 4-9 in the under-16 semi-finals but will get another chance tomorrow in the under-14 final where the two meet again. Suchde, who has lost just once to Seth -- in the Nationals -- will play another national champion, Junaid Nathani, in the under-16 final at the Cricket Club of India courts.

Suchde defeated Karanpal Sethi in the under-14 semis 9-7, 9-7, 9-1 while Seth won 9-1, 9-5, 9-1 over Saurav Ghoshal in the other semi-final.

The Cathedral and John Connon class-mates, who run into each other with monotonous regularity, promised another thriller when Seth equalised at one-game all after Suchde took the first. After leading 8-2 in the second game, Seth dropped a game ball and Suchde pulled back to 7-8.

Seth recovered to get that one point but his recovery halted there. Suchde, whosaid his game has improved tremendously under coach Rahmat Khan -- who coaches both the boys -- trailed again in the third game at 2-6. This time he recovered and stayed on course with a 9-6 victory.

The fourth was Suchde's from the start as he ran upto a 5-0 and then a 7-2 lead. Seth tried to work a miracle, managed to reach 4-7, but then lost way.

In the boys' under-19 semi-finals, both Anshul Manchanda and Abhimanyu Jain got walk-overs. Manchanda's opponent, top seed Bikram Uberoi, pulled out due to hamstring trouble while Jain's opponent, second seed Parth Doshi, was running high temperature.

Results

Boys' under-19 (semi-finals): Anshul Manchanda w/o Bikram Uberoi; Abhimanyu Jain bt w/o Parth Doshi.

Under-16 (semi-finals): Junaid Nathani bt Auloke Mathur 9-1, 9-2, 9-4; Siddharth Suchde bt Mihir Seth 9-2, 7-9, 9-6, 9-4.

Under-14: Mihir Seth bt Saurav Ghoshal 9-1, 9-5, 9-1; Siddharth Suchde bt Karanpal Sethi 9-7, 9-7, 9-1.

Women's singles (semi-finals): Mekhala Subedar bt DeepikaChandratreya 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; Deepali Anvekar bt Rhea Bhandare 9-2, 9-4, 9-7.

Under-19 (semi-finals): Deepali Anvekar bt Supriya Balsekar 9-0, 9-1, 9-0; Rhea Bhandare bt Rachna Patnaik 9-0, 9-2, 9-1.

Over-45 (semis) Rehmat Khan w/o Jayant Bakshi. Over-35 (quarter-finals): Vaman Apte bt Vipul Dalal 10-8, 9-0, 9-1; Gopi Mohite bt S Shirole 9-3, 9-0, 9-2; Anant More bt S David 9-3, 10-8, 9-2. Professionals: Chandrakant Pawar bt Anant More 7-9, 9-5, 9-7, 9-1; S More bt D Tripathi 9-4, 9-5, 9-3.