TENNIS
Ankita Raina and Riya Sachdeva took Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to a 2-0 victory over Indian Oil in the women’s final of the 42nd PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.
The key to the contest was the ability of the country’s No.1 player, Ankita, to fight at her best when the chips were down. Ankita recovered from being down 1-3 and facing two break points at 15-40 to script a memorable victory over the fierce stroking Riya Bhatia 6-3, 7-5.
After that entertaining match, which put Indian women’s tennis in perspective, the young Riya Sachdeva asserted her potential with a 6-2, 6-4 win over the experienced Prarthana Thombare.
Two of the best teams in the competition, ONGC and Indian Oil set up a title clash in the men’s event as well, by beating Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Oil India Limited (OIL) respectively.
Ramkumar Ramanathan set the tone for Indian Oil’s victory by beating the athletic Udit Gogoi. Chirag Duhan closed it out with a fluent win over Anshuman Dutta.
In the other semifinal, Rithvik Bollipalli beat Saketh Myneni after Karan Singh had won the first rubber for ONGC.
The results:
Men (semifinals): Indian Oil bt Oil India Limited 2-0 (Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Udit Gogoi 6-1, 6-1; Chirag Duhan bt Anshuman Dutta 6-1, 6-1).
ONGC bt GAIL 2-0 (Karan Singh bt Pradeep Pancholi 6-0, 6-1; Rithvik Bollipalli bt Saketh Myneni 6-4, 6-3).
Women (final): ONGC bt Indian Oil 2-0 (Ankita Raina bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 7-5; Riya Sachdeva bt Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-4).
– Kamesh Srinivasan
Source Agencies
