Rohith Gobinath and eighth seed, Deepshika Vinayagamurthy emerged as champions in the Boys’ and Girls’ Singles respectively of the KSLTA - ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium on Saturday.
The Girls’ final produced a rollercoaster that lasted over three hours. Top seed Snigdha Kanta dominated the opener 6–1, but Deepshika Vinayagamurthy showed grit to claw back in a tight second set. The 15-year-old broke Snigdha’s second serve to take a 3-1 lead only for Snigdha to snap back and level at 3-3. Neither athlete gave an inch in a gruelling set to reach 6-6 before Snigdha sealed the tiebreak, with only three points conceded. In the decider, Deepshika went ahead 3-1 before Snigdha fought back to 3–3, and the tension peaked when Snigdha broke back at 4–5 to stay alive. But Deepshika dug deep and bagged the set 7–5 to take the title.
Rohith Gobinath breezed past his opponent to secure the title in 87 minutes. The first set was evenly contested, with both players holding their serve and taking three games each in the early exchanges. Leveraging his strong backhand, Rohith eventually clinched the set, 7-5. Carrying that momentum into the second set, he tightened his grip with early breaks to race to a 4–1 lead in the set and eventually sealed the contest 7-5, 6-1. Speaking on his maiden ITF Junior Title, Rohith Gobinath said, “My plan was to attack his service game, and I took the first set after a tough battle. I was in better physical condition in the second set and was able to do well. I am thrilled as this is a big win in my career.” Reflecting on her victory, Deepshika Vinayagamurthy added, “Snigdha is an amazing player, and I went in with a mindset to just play my best. In the first set she was playing extraordinary tennis and was finishing points too quickly so in the second set I got back to my basics and tried to drag the match a bit, so I was able to make her play more, get my rhythm and finish the match."