Divija Mandava of Andhra Pradesh in action. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Dec. 14: City lad Prosenjit Paul bowed out of the Tata Steel-AITA Super Series Tennis Championship, losing out to top seed Kaza Vinayak Sarma of Andhra Pradesh (6-2, 6-2) in 57 minutes in a boys’ singles under-16 semi-final tie today.

Sarma will now take on Shantanu Rajput of Delhi in the final tomorrow.

The Andhra lad beat second-seeded Lakshit Sood, also from Delhi, 6-0, 6-2.

Paul, who tried every trick in the book to stay in the proceedings, had to finally bow out to a more determined opponent. He started well by breaking Sarma’s serve in the first game. However, the youngster soon lost his serve in the second game and failed to retain his serves, in the fourth and eighth games, to lose the set at 2-6. In the eighth game, Paul double faulted twice. The Jamshedpur lad squandered a 40-0 lead to lose the match.

In a remarkable comeback, sixth-seeded Tushal Thawani of Maharashtra put it across second-seeded S. Sidharth of Tamil Nadu in a boys’ singles under-14 semi-final tie.

Sidharth raced past his rival, by breaking all his serves in the first set and in the third game, with a lead of 4-0. The Maharashtra boy improved his show by notches, breaking Sidharth’s serve in the eighth, 10th and 12th game to take the second set at 7-5.

In other matches, J. Mohit Kumar Mayur of Tamil Nadu beat Ronit Bisht of Delhi 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

In another semi-final tie today, Andhra Pradesh’s Divija Mandava defeated Rishika Sunkara of Delhi 6-0, 7-5, while Patel beat Shweta C. Rana of Andhra 6-0, 6-3.

Tomorrow, in the girls’ singles under-14 finals, Divija will take on Nova Akshay Patel of Gujarat.