National Tennis Championship 2024: Rethin beats Abhinav to enter final, Maaya knocks out Riya

Two of the brightest juniors in Indian tennis, Maaya Rajeshwaran and Rethin Pranav, asserted their potential yet again, as they made it to the finals of the women’s and men’s events in the Fenesta National championship at the DLTA Complex on Friday.

The 15-year-old Maaya, a precocious talent from Coimbatore, coached by Manoj Kumar, made little fuss in knocking out the second seed and former champion Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-2, with her customary assurance.

There was some concern, even in such a strong fare, as Maaya dropped serve four times in the match. The athletic and energetic girl has had a remarkable run, as she has won seven matches so far, including three in the qualifying event, dropping 29 games in all.

She will be up against the fluent stroking Vaidehi Chaudhari who has dropped only 11 games in all in four matches.

The big-built Rethin, a rare talent from Karur, who was groomed for a few years at the Rohan Bopanna academy in Bengaluru, has capitalised on his lucky-loser spot in the main draw with a remarkably splendid run.

He eased past the experienced Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam for the loss of five games, in the semifinals. After losing to Bhicky Sagolshem in the third and final qualifying round, the 17-year-old Rethin who was ranked a career best 88 in the world among juniors, has rarely put a foot wrong.

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The two kids from Tamil Nadu took away the focus from Nitin Kumar Sinha who played a brilliant match to turn the tide against Olympian and former champion Vishnu Vardhan in a gripping contest in the men’s semifinal.

Nitin failed to serve the first set out when he had three set points in the tenth game. Vishnu was able to take that set at 7-5. But, stroking with intelligence and craft, Nitin was able to serve out the second set with an ace. In the decider, Vishnu could not find any energy in his legs, especially so after having negotiated two Manipuri talent in the earlier rounds, in the energy sapping heat.

In the event, Nitin prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

It will be interesting to see how the youngsters fare in the finals against pretty strong opposition in the men’s and women’s events on the morrow.