Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship: Karan Salwan and Simran Kaur Sethin lift u-16 national titles

Karan Salwan and Simran Kaur Sethi were the reasons for Delhi's double delight on Saturday with both the local players winning the under-16 boys and girls singles title, respectively, at the Fenesta Open National Championship.

Big serving second seed Fatehdeep Singh was the casualty against Karan, who did not have the most auspicious of starts, dropping his serve in the very first game of the match before lifting the crown with a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory.

In the under-16 girls singles, Tarannum Handa's resistance wasn't enough to stop an in-form Simran who notched an impressive victory (7-5, 6-0) against her Delhi compatriot.

Karan, however, had to battle hard especially in the first set which went into the tie-breaker after both the players broke each other once. There were ominous signs for Karan when Fatehdeep broke him in the very first game but the Delhi lad did not give up and continued his search to level the scores.

Finally, he got his opportunity when he had two break points in the fifth game and he converted the second one to pave the way for his comeback. Karan got another chance to seal the first set in the 12th game but he squandered two break points, allowing Fatehdeep to force a tiebreaker.

Karan always kept his stronghold in the tie- breaker, surging to a 4-1 lead and finally won it 7-5. In the second set, Karan had to break Fatehdeep just once in the fifth game after which he held on to his serve to win the two-hour-two-minute contest.

Simran also had a similar fate in her under-16 girls singles' final with Tarannum posing a strong resistance in the first set but came a cropper in the next. After Saturday's match, Simran enjoys a 2-1 win-loss record over Tarannum and now aims for a junior Grand Slam in near future.

"I might play the qualifying rounds in the junior Australian Open and hopefully, in coming years, I might win one," said the 15-year-old Simran who came into the tournament after a training stint in Paris.

"I have played her (Tarannum) before and in Delhi we train together in the same academy. So, I had my strategy planned when I came into the match and in fact, I usually come out with some sort a strategy against all my opponents," she added.

In the under-14 girls singles final, it was the sore ankle again that did Andhra girl Nayanika Reddy in. Although she posed a stiff challenge in the first set to Pranjala Yadlapalli, who eventually lifted the title, there wasn't much left in her in the second set as she lost the summit clash 6(5)-7, 4-6.

Dhruv Pal won the under-14 boys single title, defeating top seed Sachin Kumar 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

Fenesta Open National Championship.