Ken outplays Sparsh for tennis title

Ken Belt outplayed Sparsh Parmar to win 6-0, 6-3 and claim the 12 years and under Boys singles title yesterday at the Fourth E.K Kanoo Junior Open Tennis Championships at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) premises in Juffair.

The first set was convincingly won by Ken who took advantage of poor service games by his opponent, but Sparsh did manage to stay in the fourth game which went three times to deuce and the fifth also going to deuce.

In the second set with the score 4-0 to the advantage of Ken looked like curtains for Sparsh, but he found some form and though he lost a Marathon fifth game which went to deuce seven times he managed to get his game together.

The sixth game on serve for Sparsh opened his account in the match and then after going to deuce twice he broke Ken and trailed 2-5 and then winning a third game in a row.

However, Ken managed to hold his nerve in the ninth game and won the advantage game for the title.

“I was a bit surprised winning the first set so easily and exploited any mistakes, but after some time in the second set, Sparsh fought back well and made it tough towards the end of the match,” said Ken a 10-year old student at Bahrain School and originally from Virginia in the US.
“It was not my normal game as I have been suffering from a fever and felt quite weak and it affected my game. My service was not great with double-faulting and by the time I got back into the match it was too late,” said the 11-year old New Millennium School student from Gujarat, India.

In other matches played, Esa Al Qattan and Jaber Abdul A’al worked hard to clinch the Boys 14 years and under doubles title with a 6-4, 2-6, 11-9 win against Anshuman Sonawane and Sparsh Parmar.

Girls 16 years and under quarter finals action saw Advika Ravikumar win 6-0, 6-2 against Raakhi Bharathy and Nazley Nader a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Chenduty Sahithi, while Ranem Ghattas and Aleina Alex received walkover wins against Kalpaka Pradeep and Sai Rama Balakrishnan respectively.
Action resumes today in Boys and Girls 16 years and under singles semi-finals today at 4pm.
The championships conclude on Wednesday and all spectators are welcome.