Pune: Delhi’s Fatehdeep Singh and Maharashtra’s Snehadevi Reddy completed a grand double by winning the singles titles at the Walchand Cup U-16 National Series tennis tournament at Deccan Gymkhana on Saturday.
Fatehdeep Singh, a 10th standard student of GRD Academy in Ludhiana, defeated second seed Jude Raymond for the third time in as many meetings to win the singles crown, after having won the doubles title alongside Raymond on Friday. Singh eased through the first set, and never took the foot of the accelerator to win 6-0, 6-3.
Mumbai girl Snehadevi Reddy was equally clinical in her 6-1, 6-2 win in the final over Pune girl Vasanti Shinde.
Singh, who has lost just one set to Raymond in three meetings so far, won his ninth singles title of the season. “I am obviously very happy with the result. I have never won a final so comfortably,” Singh said after the final.
After not losing a single game in the first set, Singh raced to a 4-2 lead, and maintained the service break to complete his fifth double crown of a very young career.
Jude raymond a 10th grader of Government HS, Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh, said, “I did not serve too well. My opponent played better and did not give me a chance. He hardly made any errors today.” This was Jude’s seventh final of the season, out of which he has won four.
Jude’s father Vijay Kumar, a teacher at the school and a former hockey player, added, “Jude has no hitting partner, no coaching and his success so far has been based on sheer hard work. A clay court has been made in the school wherein he and his brother practise. Right now, he’s more of a doubles specialist.”
Snehadevi Reddy, who practices at Bangalore’s Tennis Excellence, under Arjun Goutham, has represented India in the Under-16 Fed Cup. This is her first double crown in the past six months, having won the Ramesh Desai memorial All-India tournament, at Mumbai in May 2011
“It’s always nice to win a double. I have had a string of successes in doubles this year, and this adds to the confidence,” added Reddy, who had shocked the current national champion Rutuja Bhosale in the Adidas U-18 nationals in September.