Passi clinches ATF Boys Under-14 singles title

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

Vishal Passi of India put up a sterling performance to win the under-14 boy's singles tennis title at the Asian Tennis Federation Under-14 Series Week-2 Tournament which concluded at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, Hard Courts, Green Path, Colombo, yesterday.

The fifth seed continued his impressive record in the competition by outplaying Sri Lankan Vimuktha de Alwis in straight sets in the final encounter.

Unseeded Vimuktha of course went into the final with a great amount of confidence having knocked out Naruka Digvijay Singh in the semi-finals.

But this time he was up against a more talented player and conceded a second and final set 6-3. The series week-1 winner of this tournament Vimuktha de Alwis in fact got off to a promising start and showed signs of taking the final into the maximum.

At one time the scores stood at 4-2 in favour of de Alwis, but Vishal Passi came back magnificently with some fine smashes and rallied around through his accuracy to win the first set at 6-4.

After winning the first set Passi's morale was very high and he continued to play a smart game while taking a good lead in the second set. He ran up a commanding 4-2 lead at one time before making the finishing touches at 6-3.

In the boys' doubles final top seeds Kuwaitee Mohammed Reda and Indian Rajat Maheshwari triumphed against an unseeded Indian duo Naruka Digvijay Singh and Vishal Passi in a well contested three setter (6/2, 0/6, 6/4). Boys' Doubles - semi-finals: Mohammed Reda (Kuwait)/ Rajat Maheshwari beat Abdul Razzak/Joshua Jordan (Malaysia) 6/1, 6/4.

Naruka Digvijay Singh and Vishal Passi beat Vimuktha de Alwis/Shamal Dissanayake 7/5, 6/2.