New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) The Indian challenge in the Asian Junior Tennis Championships ended Saturday with Rishika Sunkara and Vaidik Munshaw going down in the rain-interrupted semifinals here Saturday.
Sunkara, seeded seventh, lost 3-6, 3-6 to ninth-seeded Japanese Miho Kowase in the girls event while Munshaw put up a good fight in the boy’s event before losing to second seeded Chinese Bowen Ouyang 5-7, 4-6, who last week won the Indian ITF junior tournament here.
In the finals Sunday, Miho plays second seeded Chinese Ran Tian who dispatched fifth-seeded compatriot Lin Zhu 6-3, 6-2. Ouyand will, like last week, will once again fight it out with top seeded compatriot Chuhan Wang who overcame eight-seeded Thai Warit Sornbutnark 6-4, 6-4.
Sunkara, who took out the top seeded Japanese Eri Hozumi Friday, came up with some delectable ground strokes against the diminutive Kowase but needed to be more consistent. After a couple of break exchanges in the first set, the Japanese with her powerful groundstrokes and good court-craft, got the decisive break in eight game and then served out the set.
Sunkara got her act together in the second set and was leading 3-0 when the rain interrupted the match for the second time. At resumption, the Japanese reeled of six games to pocket the set and the match.
In the boys semifinals, Munshaw matched Ouyang stroke by stroke and in fact was a break up in both the sets but squandered the advantage to go down.
