Maharashtra’s Aishwarya Jadhav sustained her brilliant form to upstage Suhitha Maruri of Karnataka and clinch the Under-18 girls’ singles title at the Fenesta Open National hard-court tennis championships in New Delhi on Saturday.
Aishwarya overcame second seed Sahitha 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in a see-saw final at the DLTA Complex.
Southpaw Rushil Khosla had a comparatively easy outing in the boys’ final as he scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Samarth Sahita.
The men’s and women’s finals both went down to the wire with Siddharth Vishwakarma and Rashmikaa Shirivalli emerging champs.
Siddharth pulled off a stunning come-from-behind 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory against Haryana's Karan Singh while Rashmikaa registered a thrilling 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 win to dethrone Vaidhi Chaudhari of Gujarat.
“It’s a great feeling to become National champion again after five years. I worked hard for this and want to thank Ratan Sharma sir, my coach, who has been a great support to me in my career. I am now ready for the upcoming tournaments on the circuit,” Siddharth said after his victory.
For Rashmikaa, it was her maiden national title.
“I played a close friend in the final and think we had a tough fight on the court, the competition between us was great. The last game could have been anyone’s but I held my nerves better and it’s great to be the champion.”
The Fenesta Open Nationals has witnessed the participation of the country’s top players such as Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Sania Mirza and Rutuja Bhosale.
