Sai Raghav, Essa Al Qattan and Rushikesh win titles

Sai Raghav Balakrishnan defeated Jaber Bader A’al 7-6 games in the Under-12 final of the Bahrain National Day Unisex Juniors Open Tennis Championships which concluded last night at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) Courts in Isa Town.

Bader began the stronger and held an early 2-0 lead thanks to a break in the second game, but Sai Raghav came back to level at 2-2, before Jaber restored his 4-2 advantage.

Sai Raghav from India fought back against his Bahraini opponent to level at 4-4, only for each player to cancel out each other’s service breaks with the score at 5-5.

In a tense last three games (which all went to deuce), both players held serve to make it 6-6 and with Jaber serving in the final game, he served up a double fault and Sai Raghav took advantage of the opportunity to clinch the title.

In the Under-10 final, Essa Al Qattan beat Sudharsh Nair 6-4 games after the two players shared the first four games at 2-2.

Essa held serve in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead and then broke Sudharsh for a 4-2 lead in the sixth which proved to be the key point of the match.

The next two games also went against serve with Essa 5-3 ahead and inthe tenth game Essa won a third break for the title after the last three games had gone to deuce.

The Under-8 title went to Rushikesh Sonawane following his 4-0 gameswin in the final against Hamza Moussa.

It was a remarkable tournament for Rushikesh who won all his matches4-0 against Ahmed Riyaan, Mariam Yaser Ahmed and Samrudh Nair, while Hamza won through to the final with wins against Reda Hassan (4-1), Salman Mohammed Ali (4-1) and Hashim Toobli (4-0).

The championship featured more than 40 players under the supervision Tournament Director and Technical Director of the Bahrain National Team, Essam Abdul A’al. “This has been a good tournament not only to celebrate the Kingdom’s National Day, but to look to the long-term future and identify talent and further help in their development,” said Abdul A’al.

All the finalists were presented with trophies at an awarding ceremonyby BTF General-Secretary Fuad Al Rowaie.

Other results: 

Under-8: (Quarter finals): Samrudh Nair bt Hussain Jalil Khalil 4-0, Hashim Toobli bt Ahmed Mohammed Sayed 4-2. 

(Round of 16): Maryam Yaser Ahmed w/o Andrei Cipra, Samrudh Nair bt Abdul Rahman Mohammed 4-1, Hussain Jalil Khalil bt Clark Sayago 4-0, Salman Mohammed Ali bt Talal Mohammed 4-0, Ahmed Mohammed Sayed bt Leanne Gayle Sino Cruz 4-1, Hashim Toobli bt Hunter Colkitt 4-2.