Maharashtra, TN win tennis gold

Maharashtra's men continued their victory run to defeat Delhi 2-1 and claim the gold medal while Tamil Nadu clinched the women's crown in the tennis team event in the 31st National Games in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

While Maharashtra had to dig deep into their reserves to suppress a spirited challenge from Delhi in an exciting men's team final, Tamil Nadu had to struggle a bit before suppressing Maharashtra by an identical 2-1 margin in the women's section.

Delhi's Shivang Mishra proved no match for Maharashtra's Sandeep Kirtane, who put him down in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 to give his team a 1-0 lead.

But in a show of resistance, Delhi's Vishal Uppal levelled the score 1-1 with a 7-5, 6-2 victory in the second singles match against Ajay Ramaswami.

Maharashtra, however, emerged winners in the doubles, but only after a fight. Sandeep and Nitin Kirtane got the better of the Delhi duo of Vishal Uppal and Vishal Gupta 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Andhra Pradesh beat Tamil Nadu 2-1 to win bronze in the men's team event. Tamil Nadu's Vijay Kannan won the first match with ease against Andhra's P Ravi Krishna, defeating him in straight sets 6-2, 6-0.

Performing under pressure, the Andhra boys rallied commendably with Punna Vishal defeating Vinod Sridhar 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

In the doubles too, they proved their dominance when P Vishal and Vasudeva beat Vijay Kannan and Rishi Sridhar 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

In the men's semi-final team events, played on Tuesday, Maharashtra beat Andhra 2-0 while Delhi won against TN by the same margin.

In the women's team events, Tamil Nadu emerged winners to take home the gold, with Rushmi Chakaravarti beating Radhika Tulpule (Mah) 6-3, 6-4 and the pair of Sai Jayalakshmi and Rushmi (TN) combining well to win against Tulpule and Phadke to win 6-0, 2-6, 6-4.

Sonal Phadke salvaged some prestige for her team when she defeated Sai Jayalakshmi 6-4, 6-2.

The bronze was clinched by Andhra Pradesh, who defeated Karnataka 2-1.

Sania Mirza (AP) faced little challenge from her rival S K Tara (Kar) and beat her 6-3, 6-1.

Karnataka's Sheetal Gautam then made it 1-1 when she beat Andhra's Geeta Manohar 7-5, 6-1. However, Andhra sealed victory when Sania and Geeta downed the pair of Tara and Gautam 6-0, 7-5.

In the women's team semi-finals on Tuesday, Maharashtra had beaten Andhra Pradesh 2-1 and Tamil Nadu defeated Karnataka by the same margin.