Dhairya, Ahaan make MSSA U-16 tennis final

Hiranandani Foundation’s Dhairya Vimal during his win over Zoyeb Patel of Gyan Kendra at Bombay Gym yesterday; (right) Aahaan Jain in full cry during his semi-final yesterday. Pics/Anurag Ahire

Dhairya Vimal of Hiranandani Foundation School defeated Zoyeb Patel of Gyan Kendra Secondary School 7-4 in the tie-breaker to advance to the final of the MSSA boys U-16 inter-school lawn tennis tournament at Bombay Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Dhairya lost both his games on serve, but recovered by converting two successive break points thereafter. With the best-of-five match tied at 2-2, the tie-breaker was employed. Here again, Dhairya lost a bit of his focus and went down 0-3 before fighting back to make it 4-4 and then going to win the match with his accurate placements. "I played well initially, but Zoyeb had a different plan and kept lobbing the ball. That was frustrating, but I kept calm and changed my movements a bit and that eventually got me the victory," Dhairya told mid-day.

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In the second semi-final, which was also won via tie-breaker, Aahaan Jain of BD Somani beat Shiv Garud of Cathedral and John Connon 7-2. After the match was tied 2-2, Aahaan took control of the tie-breaker and went into a 5-0 lead. Shiv did try to fight back and picked up a couple of points but it wasn't enough to stop Aahaan from storming into the final with a neat backhand winner.