03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Oct 2: Siributwong brothers Kirati and Peerakit from Thailand, were crowned the boys doubles champions when they beat Indian pair of Jitin Bishnoi and Kinshuk Sharma in straight sets in the Karachi Club ITF junior world ranking tennis championship on Saturday.

Both the pairs played some excellent tennis then at 3-3, 14-year-old Peerakit broke Jitin's service with a sizzling forehand drive and were soon in the driver's seat when older brother Kirati cashed on his service to allow the Thai lads to move it front 5-3.

Scoring with his service, Kinshuk gave the Indian pair a glimmer of hope clawing back 4-6, but Peerakit with service in hand sealed the fate of the first set in the Thai brothers favour.

In the next set the Indians came back strongly but the Thais also rose to the occasion with awesome cross court smashes. At 4-4, it was Kirati's turn to break Kinshuk and it was soon all over for Jitin and Kinshuk, when Kirati sent down three aces serving for the match.

The match began an hour late due the a heavy drizzle which began at 2.00 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued unabated until the afternoon.

On the next court where the Girls singles final was in progress, top seeded 14-year-old Amita Arudpragasam was meeting her 16-year-old doubles partner fourth seed Su Chit Yee from Mynamar.

With both girls relying heavily on baseline play Amita took the first set 6-3 and continuing to dominate the proceedings was 4-3 in front and leading 40-0 with service in hand. But Su, a fighter to the core was not giving up in a hurry. Changing her tactics and going on the offensive, she pulled herself out of the jaws of defeat drawing abreast 4-4 and went on to pinch the set 6-4, which earned her a handsome round of applause.

In the final set with the girls tied at 2-2 the rain came down again.

The girls were back on court with left-hander Su serving to be 30-0 in front with a fine cross court volley which caught Amita napping and followed it up with a backhand smash. But suddenly Amita was in full throttle. Grabbing four games on the trot, Amita broke Su's service and moved ahead 3-2, when the rains came down again which forced the match to be called off and to be continued on Sunday afternoon.

Following were the results:

Boys doubles (final): Kirati Siributwong/Peerakit Siributwong (Thailand) bt Jitin Bishnoi/ Kinshuk Sharma (India) 6-4, 6-4.

Girls singles (final): Amita Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka) leads Su Chit Yee (Myanmar) 6-3, 4-6, 3-2(match suspended due to rain.

Fixtures for Sunday.

Girls singles (final) - continued

Amita Arudpragasam (Sri Lanka) v/s Su Chit Yee (Mynamar)

Boys singles (final)

Kirati Siributwong (Thailand) v/s Gursher Harika (India).