Vasisht Cheruku keeps Indian hopes alive

Vasisht Cheruku is the only Indian left in the fray and the sixth seed will face unseeded Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei in the boys singles final of the DKS ITF Junior Tennis here tomorrow.

The promising Mysore lad came back from behind to down third seeded Chinese opponent Lingxi Zhao 3-6 6-4 6-4, while in the other semifinal, Ho stormed past Rishi Reddy 6-3 6-1 at the Dakshin Kalikata Sansad clay courts.

The girls singles summit clash will be an all Taipei affair as third seeded En Shuo Liang will face Pei Hsuan Chen who will be eyeing a second crown after her doubles win today.

Third seeded Liang quelled the only Indian challenge left in girls section by ousting Shivani Amineni 6-2 6-2, while seventh seed Pei Hsuan Chen beat sixth seed Ye Xin Ma of China 6-1 6-0.

In the boys doubles, the Korean duo of Seon Yong Han and Yeongseok Jeong beat Ray Ho and Lingxi Zhao 6-3 6-4.

Taipei’s Hsuan Chen and Fang Hsien Wu, who are seeded third, clinched the girls doubles stunning topseed En Shuo Liang and Nidhi Surapaneni 6-2 6-4.

In the boys singles, Zhao got an early break in the opening set to take a 3-0 lead and thereafter the set progressed with hold of serves for a 6-3 win in favour of the Chinese.

In the second set, Cheruku stepped up his game to make it 5-4 in his favour before getting a much-needed break, as he dropped only one point before closing the set by 6-4.

In the decider, there were several break of serves and the set reached at 5-4 in favour of Cheruku much like the previous one.

But Cheruku got the major break as he took four straight points from 0-15 down, thereby winning the match.