Mumbai : Joshua Eapen of Vashi shocked top seed Karim Khan to storm into the boys’ quarter-finals, in the MSLTA-Yonex-Sunrise Vazirani Under-12 Junior Open Championship Series Tennis Tournament, at the Vazirani National Sports Academy, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Seeded way down the order at No. 16, diminutive Eapen of Avlon Heights School, fashioned the most significant upset of his brief career when he beat Khan of Children’s Academy, Malad 8-3 to give the competition an explosive start. Just 10, Eapen made amends for his short stature to keep the ball in and put Khan under early pressure. Eapen surged to a substantial lead from midway and never looked back as Khan, winner of titles at Thane and Practennis, struggled to initiate a recovery and caved in. Eapen triggered a few more upsets, as Atharva Salunkhe Patil, also seeded down the order at No. 12, shunted out sixth seed Nishant Dewulkar 8-3 in another pre-quarter-final, while unseeded Manas Sinha of Apeejay, Nerul shocked fourth seed Anargha Ganguly 8-5 in the second round after initiating a stunning recovery from 0-4 in the best-of-15 games contest.
Unseeded Sama Dalal ended the opening day of upsets when she shocked fourth seed Meenakshi Singh 8-7 (7-5) in an exciting girls pre-quarter-final following a gruelling tie-breaker. Also progressing to the boys quarter-finals were, second seed Saheb Sodhi, third seed Arjun Chatterjee, fifth seed Achal Samanth and Sahil Tambat of Chinchwad, Pune who halted Sinha.
