Zeel Desai saved a match point in a battle of wits against a fearless Bhuvana Kalva to set up a summit clash in the women’s singles semi-finals against a wily Mahak Jain in the National Tennis Championships in Delhi on Friday.
Desai held her nerves to save a match point in the twelfth game of the third set to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 over a very impressive Kalva in a marathon semi-final, which lasted just over three hours at DLTA. In the other semi-final, Mahak posted a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over Tanisha Kashyap, who also lost her girls singles semi-final to Vaidehi Chaudhari. The men’s singles final will be played between top seed Suraj Prabodh and Dalwinder Singh.
Prabodh defeated Manish Sureshkumar 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-2 while Dalwinder defeated Bava Haddin 7-5, 6-0. In arguably one of the best matches played at the this year’s nationals, Desai wriggled out of difficult situations to remain a title contender. She went up 4-1 in the opening set but it was the tenacious Kalva who took the opening set by reeling off five straight games.
Desai was forced to re-work her strategy to counter a fierce and relentless opponent like Kalva. The 18-year-old, though, had enough tricks up her sleeve to subdue her rival. She came up with good service games, sometimes on the body and trapped Kalva with her deep, angled forehand.
Desai went up in both sets but Kalva wasn’t giving away any easy points. Kalva saved a match point in the tenth game of the third set to earn a match point herself in the twelfth but netted a forehand on that and eventually lost serve on a backhand error.
In the tie-breaker, it was Desai who took control of the proceedings with a calculated approach. She did not lose a single point and won it with a down-the-line backhand winner.
Talking about the final, Desai sounded confident, “I have played Mahak before several times. Last time, we played in Malaysia and I beat her 6-3 6-2. It’s good to be in final. I want that trophy. I like trophies,” Desai was reported as saying by PTI. Kalva said she has exceeded her own expectations. “I never thought I will reach semi-final. I will take a lot of confidence from this performance. When I lost that match point, my mind went blank,” she said.
The Under-18 boys final will be played between Sacchitt Sharrma and Dhruv Sunish. Sharrma faced stiff resistance from Abhimanyu Vannemreddy before winning 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 while Sunish outplayed Siddhant Banthia 6-4, 6-3. Top seed Akansha Bhan will challenge Chaudhari in the girls’ singles title clash. She beat Sathwika Sama 6-1, 3-6, 6- 4 while Chaudhari pipped Kashyap 7-6(4), 7-5.
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