The juniors from Pune had mixed fortunes on Thursday at the Walchand Cup National Series in Deccan Gymkhana here.

Top-seeded Arjun Kadhe booked a semifinal berth in the boys' division by defeating Abhimanyu Singh of Delhi 6-2, 6-1. Kadhe controlled the tempo of the match right till the end and had no problem beating his opponent. He will now face Nikhit Prasadadusumilli (AP) in the semifinal.

Nikhit continued his fine run by defeating Pune's third seed Tushal Thawani 7-6(7), 2-6,7-5. In the longest match in the boy's section, it was Nikhit's big serve and ability to hit big shots on the important points that made the difference between the two players.

The other semifinal clash will be between Vinod Gowda of Karnataka (second seed) and Yash Deshpande (eighth seed) who ousted Shaikh Abdullah (fourth seed) in a match of strong baselines. After winning the first set easily, Deshpande took his foot off the accelerator and found himself floundering and losing the second set. In the third set he recomposed himself to win. Second seed Vinod Gowda did not have to exert himself too much to beat fifth seed Vilasier Khate (HAR) 6-1,6-1.

All four of the girls' quarterfinals displayed excellent tennis and the two top seeds won in close matches while the third and the fourth seeds were ousted. Top-seeded Amrita Mukherjee got the better of local girl and the fifth seed Namita Bal. In a closely fought first set, Namita Bal took an early and controlled the tempo of the match beautifully to lead 5-2. However, Amrita showed great resilience and retrieving power to crawl her way back to 5-5. After that there was no looking back and she won the match 7-5, 6-2.

... contd.