2021 National Tennis Championships | Niki Poonacha and Zeel Desai earn top honours in individual events
Niki Poonacha claimed the men's singles event at the 2021 national tennis championships
|India’s Niki Poonacha and Zeel Desai claimed top honours in the individual men’s and women’s event at the National Tennis Championships, on Saturday. Meanwhile, the pair of Niki Poonacha and Prajwal Dev claimed the men’s doubles title win a win over Chandril Sood and Lakshit Sood.
Niki Poonacha had already won two national titles before appearing for the ongoing edition. Up against Digvijay Pratap Singh in the summit clash, the 26-year old Niki found himself in a bit of a fix, having lost the first set as well as conceding a couple of match points.Â
However, he managed to bail himself out of the situation and win the second set and also the third to bring up his third national title. The final scores read 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in Niki’s favour, who trains at the Rohan Bopanna Academy, in Bengaluru.
It was also Niki’s second crown at the championships, with him already winning the men’s doubles title alongside Vishnu Prajwal Dev on Friday, having defeated the likes of Chandril Sood and Lakshit Sood, with scores of 6-2, 7-6 in the final.
On the other hand, Zeel Desai was also on the back-foot early on in the game against Sharmada Banu, and was trailing 1-3 in the first set. However, Zeel made an emphatic comeback, with her not dropping a game from there on, having won the match 6-3, 6-0 in the end.
However, Sharmada Balu had earlier tasted success, with her claiming the women’s doubles title alongside Sravya Chilakalapudi, beating the pair of Vaidehi Chaudhari and Mihika Yadav 6-2, 6-2 in the penultimate match.
