Fourteen-year-old Rohit Bisht of Delhi was the toast of the day, as he entered the boys' under-16 and under-14 semi-finals, in the All India National Series and Maharashtra State Ranking Tennis Tournament 2007, co-sponsored by DHFL and IOCL, in Mumbai on Thursday.
Bisht, who is enjoying a brilliant campaign, came through a tight boys' under-16 quarter-final contest to shock second seed Mansingh Athare of Maharashtra 7-6 (4), 7-5.
He capped a rewarding day when he also advanced to the boys' under-14 semi-finals. As the top seed in this category, he crushed unseeded Rupam Gogoi of Assam 6-2, 6-1.
Fourth seed Treta Bhattacharya of West Bengal was another big casualty after going down to Shivani Singh of Andhra Pradesh 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in an exciting girls' under-16 pre-quarter-final.
Results:
Nat. Series: Boys' U-16 (Quarters): Samip Mehta (Guj) bt Sai Kartik (AP) 6-2, 6-2; Chetan Pandit (AP) bt Suraj Desai (Guj) 6-1, 6-3; Rohit Bisht (Del) bt Mansingh Athare (Mah) 7-6 (4), 7-5; Sagar Ahuja (Mah) bt S.V. Abhishek (AP) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
Boys' U-14 (Quarters): Rohit Bisht (Del) bt Rupam Gogoi (Asm) 6-2, 6-1; Arjun Kadhe (Mah) bt Sharan Patil (Kar) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1; Sidharth Rawat (UP) bt Vigneshwaran (tn) 6-3, 6-0; Digvijay Singh (HP) bt Ronit Bisht (Del) 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Girls' U-16 (Pre-Quarters): Nimisha Mohan (Kar) bt Natasha Palha (Goa) 6-2, 6-3; Divya Rao (AP) bt Neha Purohit (AP) 6-2, 6-3; Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah) bt Riddhi Hegde (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; Shivani Singh (AP) bt Treta Bhattacharyya (WB) 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Girls' U-14 (Pre-Quarters): Anushka Bhargava (AP) bt Sanjana M Kumar (TN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Suresh Bhavana (AP) bt Sravya Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-1; Amrita Mukherjee (WB) bt Sneha Reddy (Mah) 6-3, 6-2; Vaidehi Bhagvat (Mah) bt Namita Bal (Mah) 6-3, 6-2; Sharon S Paul (TN) bt Abhilasha Ahuja (Har) 6-0, 6-1.