Stepping into the sport just over a year ago, the New Model English School student has become an unavoidable threat to his counterparts on the under-12 circuit. The recent past is testimony of his impressive run in the State ranking meets as he belted three titles, downing all the big names that are currently participating in the ongoing Hero-Honda Masters junior tennis tournament, at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana courts.

Mehul, after his first round upset win over No. 4 Ayush Wadhawan on the inaugural day, today once again exhibited his prowess, downing the curtains for unseeded Siddarth Chedda of Mumbai 7-5, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. He now meets top seed Keshavan Narsimhan, who was one of his victims for the Nashik State meet title.

Another boy who stole the limelight in the same section was Mumbai lad Alon Moses. The seventh standard student of Learners Academy, Bandra, avenged his Kolhapur State ranking quarter-final defeat last season, as he upstaged citymate and second seed C. Akshay 6-4, 6-1.

Joining Alon in the list of upset winners for the day was unseeded Bhushan Sardesai of Sangli who brought down the challenge of another second seeded players -- Kaushal Mahale of Mumbai 9-2 in the boys under-10 quarters.

Results (Prefix denotes seedings)
All quarter-finals
Boys u-10: Tejas Chaukulkar (Pune) bt Gaurav Ganpule (Pune) 9-3; 4. Hryday Cheddha (Mumbai) bt Akash Gujrathi (Pune) 9-6; Bhushan Sardesai (Sangli) bt 2. Kaushal Mahale (Mumbai) 9-2.
Boys u-12: 1. Keshavan Narsimhan (Mumbai) bt Krishank Shah (Mumbai) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; Mehul Kenia (Kolhapur) bt Siddarth Chedda (Mumbai) 7-5, 6-3; 3. Gautam Samarth (Pune) bt Rohan Shevakumaran (Mumbai) 6-2, 6-1; Alon Moses (Mumbai) bt 2. C. Akshay (Mumbai) 6-4, 6-1.
Boys u-14: 1. Vikrant Sane (Pune) bt Rishi Behl (Mumbai) 6-3, 6-0; 2. Ankit Doshi (Mumbai) bt Rushang Patel (Mumbai) 6-1, 6-1; 3. Shashank Kulkarni (Pune) bt Dhananjay Kawade (Pune) 6-1, 6-1; 2 Rohan Gajjar (Mumbai) bt Siddharth Patil (Pune) 6-2, 6-1.
Boys u-16: Siddarth Desai (Pune) bt Shwetyej Raste (Pune) 6-2, 6-3; 3. Aniket Joglekar (Pune) bt Aniruddha Kulkarni (Pune) 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Boys u-18: 1. Kedar Shah (Pune) bt Neil Mundra (Pune) 6-0, 6-1; 3. Abhijit Muzumdar (Mumbai) bt Nikhil Sarin (Pune) 6-2, 6-2; Jai Aurora bt 4. Hrishikesh Mone (Pune) 6-1, 6-4.

Girls u-10: Moneeza Siddiqui (Mumbai) bt Neerja Hingane (Pune) 9-1; Panja Maloo (Khamgaon) bt Anu Bhagwat (Mumbai) 9-8 (8-6); Roshini Luthra (Mumbai) bt Sonia Patwardhan (Pune) 9-2; Nikita Atal (Pune) bt Sayali Patak (Pune) 9-8 (7-2).
Girls u-12: Nidhi Shah (Mumbai) bt Sagarika Phadke (Mumbai) 6-2, 6-0; Ronak Shah (Mumbai) bt Sagarika Pandke (Mumbai) 6-0, 6-0; Tulshi Metha (Mumbai) bt Aishwarya Jadhav (Kolhapur) 6-2, 6-1.