04 October 2004	Monday	18 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Oct 3: Kirati Siributwong from Thailand and Myanmar's Su Chit Yee picked up double crowns in the Karachi Club ITF juniors world ranking tennis championship, winning their respective singles finals on Sunday at the Karachi Club hard courts.

While Kirati had a relatively easy final against the Indian lad Gursher Harikla, Myanmar's Su Chit Yee had to exert herself to the fullest to upset top seed Amita Arudragasm from Sri Lanka in three gruelling sets in a match that was forced into the second day due to inclement weather.

A day earlier, Kirati teaming up with his 14-year-old brother Peerakit blew out the sails of the Indian pair Jitin Bishnoi and Kurshik Sharma 6-4, 6-4, while Amita joining Su in the doubles event, finally got the better of the Indian combination of Inayat Khosla and Alisha Talwar 6-4, 6-4.

Amita had a slight advantage over Su leading 3-2 with service in hand. Su fighting desperately for every point broke Amita to level the scores 3-3. But the Myanmar lass could not avail the opportunity to move in front because Amita returned the compliment. Now in arrears 3-4, Su with some flowing double backhand and forehand cross court smashes drew abreast once again at 4-4.

With both girls holding their serves the score moved to 5-5 in the final set. The tall Sri Lankan 14-year-old then committed some capital errors. Shockingly she double faulted twice into the net which sealed her doom trailing 5-6.

With victory now awaiting her round the corner, Su engaged Amita in long rallies, forcing her opponent into more errors as Amita tried desperately hard to pull herself out of the woods but to no avail, going down 5-7 in the final set.

The final score in favour of Su was 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. The boys' singles lasted for only 50 minutes as Kirati Siributwong from Thailand swamped Gursher Harika from India 6-0, 6-0.

Gursher had earlier created a stir by toppling third seed Vijit Seghal 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 and the next day accounted for second seed Jitin Bishnoi 6-4, 6-4. But the Indian No.6 seed was certainly no match for the Thai youngster when he got into his strides.

With the heavy wind blowing over the court, Gursher serving in the opener was 0-1 down after being held to two deuces. Now with service in hand Kirati made numerous errors smashing off court or into the net.

Regaining control of himself he went ahead 2-0 with a couple of aces and broke Gurhser once again to increase his lead 0-3. Then sweeping through the next three games the No.1 seed bagged the first set 6-0.

Now zooming in for the kill Kirati with a ruthless display of tennis aggression, sent down numerous aces backed up with double backhand cross court smashes which vanquished his opponent 6-0, 6-0. The Consul General of Thailand Praphat Chantaharn was the chief guest on the occasion and gave away prizes.

RESULTS:

BOYS SINGLES (FINAL) : Kirati Siributwong (Thailand) beat Gursher Harika (India) 6-4, 6-4.

BOYS DOUBLES (FINAL) : Kirati Siributwong & Peerakit Siributwong (Thailand) beat Jitin Bishnoi & Kinshuk Sharma 6-4, 6-4.

GIRLS SINGLES (FINAL) : Su Chit Yee (Myanmar) beat Amita Arudrapragasm (Sri Lanka) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

GIRLS DOUBLES (FINAL) : Amita Arudrapragasm (Sri Lanka) & Su Chit Yee (Myanmar) beat Inayat Khosla & Alisha Talwar (India) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.