Sneha, Basil line up for a double crown

Pune, May 7 (IANS) Sneha Reddy of Maharashtra and Basil Khuma of Delhi put themselves in line for a double crown in the MSLTA super series Junior National Tennis Championships here Thursday.

In the singles semi-finals, third-seeded Khuma outplayed fifth-seeded Rohan Bhatia of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-2 to set up a title clash with top-seeded Abdulla Shaikh of Hyderabad, who accounted for the fourth-seeded Nishchay Rawal of Chandigarh 6-3, 6-2.

Rawal later teamed up with Khuma to outplay the pair of Abdulla and Bhatia 6-2, 6-4 to win the boys' doubles title.

In the boys under-12 event, eighth-seeded Osama Sheikh, like his elder brother Abdulla, made it to the final defeating sixth-seeded Dhir Gala 2-4, 4-0, 5-3. Osama will clash with second-seeded local boy Sahil Deshmukh who outplayed Banglore's BS Rahul 4-0, 4-1.

Fourth-seeded Reddy continued her impressive run, upsetting second-seeded Prabhuti Singhania 4-1, 4-0, to enter the final of the girls under-12 event. Sneha will clash with top-seeded Akshara Ishka, who showed the door to fifth-seeded Ojaswini Singh 4-1, 4-2.

Sneha then teamed up with Dhruti Venugopal of Karnataka to upset Rutuja Bhosale and Sansita Nandkumar 2-6, 6-2, 10-5 to clinch the girls doubles title.

In the girls under-14 event, top seed Teertha Ishka of Andhra Pradesh outplayed her younger sister and third-seeded Akshara 6-2, 6-3 to enter the final where she will clash with second-seeded Sansita Nandkumar of Tamil Nadu who defeated Reddy 6-1, 6-2.