Mumbai: After a disappointing start in the opening game, Leander's team the Mumbai Leon Army bounced back with a thrilling 46-44 win over a strong Punjab Bulls team on day 2 of the 2nd Kotak Mahindra Bank Tennis Premier League played at Celebration Club here on Friday.
Punjab made a winning start with Shekhar dominating Sureshkumar defeating him 8-2 in the wheelchair category. The Boys U-14 pair also won their match by a comfortable 3-7 margin to extend the lead to 10 points in 2 games. U-18 girls fought back for Mumbai by winning the tie 6-4. With an 8 point deficit and only 2 matches to go, Mumbai Leon Army was in a spot of bother but National Champion Soujanya Bavisetti played brilliantly against a top player like Pranjala Yadlapalli to race to a dominating 16-2 lead and put her team back in the game at 26-21. Pranjala made tried to stage a comeback scoring 7 back to back points but Soujanya managed to close the tie with a 19-11 win levelling the scores at 30-30 with one match to go. The Boys Doubles tie proved to be the most exciting match of the day with Aryan Goveas and Niki Poonacha up against an experienced pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Manish Sureshkumar. After a cautious start, the Mumbai pair held the lead for the majority of the game at 6-3 and later at 13-10. The Punjab pair tried to push hard but Aryan and Niki held their ground to winning the tie 16-14 and guide their team to a 46-44 victory.
