Mumbai : Boys fourth seed Saheb Sodhi and girls top seed Kundali Majgaine fashioned exciting victories to triumph in the Matunga Gymkhana Under-12 State Level Talent Series Tennis Tournament, organised by Grand Slam Tennis Academy.
Sodhi, who shocked top seed Deep Munim of Indore 9-6 in the semi-finals, endured the scorching afternoon heat and a late challenge to overcome Anup Bangargi of Fr. Agnel’s, Vashi 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in a marathon two-and-a-half hour championship round.
Majgaine, of Vazirani Academy, Nerul prevailed over fourth seed Bhumika Tripathi of Cannosa Convent, Andheri 6-4, 6-2 to help herself to her third title this season following victories at CCI and her home academy.
Title winner at Indore, Sodhi of Jamnabai Narsee, Juhu lived dangerously after bagging the opening set without a sweat.
Playing his maiden championship round, Bangargi fought back brilliantly to force the decider that stretched into the tie-breaker and could have gone either way in a tight finish.
Sodhi frittered away a match-point at 40-30 in the 11th game of the third set after being broken in the previous game and was 5-1 up in the tie-breaker when the determined Bangargi, who trains at the Sadhu Vaswani International School’s Ace Tennis Centre, Sanpada drew level at 5-5 and threatened to change the script.
