Mumbai: Karman Kaur gave Hyderabad Strikers an explosive start, defeating Sowjanya Bavisetti of Mumbai Leon Army 15-5 in the opening women’s singles to pave way for their convincing 49-31 victory in the final of the Tennis Premier League, at the Celebration Club, here.
Having played a tough semi-final against Pune Jaguars and with not enough time to recover before the final, Bavisetti was a shadow of herself against the big-serving and hard-hitting Karman and conceded a huge lead early in the game, from which she could not recover.
The same was the case in the men’s singles and Ramkumar fell short against Arjun Kadhe, losing 8-12. The 14 point deficit after the first two matches was just too much to scale, especially with Vishnu Vardhan coming in to play the mixed doubles. Though Niki Poonacha and Sowjanya put on a game fight, they too went down 9-11 and the same was the case in the men’s doubles, with Ramkumar and NIki losing 9-11 to Vishnu and Arjun, late on Saturday night.
Results (final): Hyderabad Strikers bt Mumbai Leon Army 49-31 (Karman Kaur bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 15-5; Arjun Kadhe bt Ramkumar 12-8; Vishnu Vardhan/Karman bt Niki Poonacha/Sowjanya 11-9; Vishnu/Arjun bt Ramkumar/Niki 11-9).