Lucknow: Seventh-seeded Uttar Pradesh player Ashi Shamshery produced the biggest upset of the day by defeating top seed Niti Santosh Dubey to secure a place in the girls’ singles semifinals of the AITA CS-7 Under-18 Boys’ and Girls’ Tennis Tournament.
The tournament, organized by SDS Tennis Academy at the La Martiniere Lawn Tennis Facility, witnessed several exciting quarterfinal encounters on Wednesday across boys’ singles, girls’ singles, and boys’ doubles categories.
In the girls’ singles quarterfinals, Ashi Shamshery dominated the top-seeded Niti Santosh Dubey, registering a convincing 6-1, 6-0 victory. Displaying aggressive serving and excellent baseline play, Ashi kept her opponent under constant pressure throughout the match.
Fourth seed Tashi Kiran of Uttar Pradesh defeated Adya Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-0, while third seed Aira outclassed fifth seed Shripriya Singhal 6-0, 6-0. Second-seeded Manusmriti Singh of Madhya Pradesh also advanced to the semifinals after defeating sixth-seeded Vanisha Jadon of Uttar Pradesh 6-0, 6-1.
In the boys’ singles quarterfinals, top seed Faiz Kidwai of Uttar Pradesh strengthened his title prospects with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory over fifth-seeded Ankit of Telangana. Third-seeded Mehar Singh Khosla overcame Rohin Raj 6-2, 6-4 in a competitive contest.
Elsewhere, fourth-seeded Vanshraj Jalota defeated eighth-seeded Nipun Chauhan of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-1, while second seed Anuruddh Kumar beat seventh-seeded Virat Singh 6-3, 6-1 to book his semifinal berth.
A notable achievement for the host academy was that all four boys’ singles semifinalists—Faiz Kidwai, Meher Singh Khosla, Vanshraj Jalota, and Anuruddh Kumar—are trainees of SDS Tennis Academy. In the girls’ category, academy trainees Aashi Shamsheri and Tashi Kiran also advanced to the semifinals, underlining the academy’s dominance in the tournament.
In boys’ doubles quarterfinal action, Devansh Vij of Uttar Pradesh and Ashwin Chauhan of Uttarakhand upset fourth-seeded pair Amol Agrawal of Chhattisgarh and Nipun Chauhan of Maharashtra 6-1, 6-4.
Third-seeded Arjun Sharma and Rohin Raj overcame Samarth Bhatnagar and Amritya Choudhary in a thrilling contest, winning 3-6, 6-2, 10-3 in the super tiebreak. Top seeds Faiz Kidwai and Meher Singh Khosla defeated Mohammad Ariz and Anay Srivastava 6-2, 6-3, while second seeds Anuruddh Kumar and Vanshraj Jalota secured a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Rishant Jaiswal and Aditya Vaibhav to advance to the semifinals.
With several academy trainees still in contention, the stage is set for an exciting finish to the prestigious Under-18 tournament.
