Bhubaneswar: Sohini Mohanty of Odisha emerged champions in both the U-12 singles and U-14 singles categories of the AITA Championship Series (CS7) tennis tournament Friday at Karnal, Haryana.
However, she had to be satisfied with a runners-up finish in U-14 doubles as she and her partner Divya Ungrish lost 5-7, 6-4, 7-10 against Nirmal Fernando of Maharashtra and Bhartesh Tamse of Goa in the finals.
In the U-12 singles semifinals, Sohini prevailed over Nirmal 6-3, 6-4 and continued in the same vein to outclass Tamse 6-1, 6-2 in the final.
In the U-14 final, Sohini was at her very best easing to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Fernando. Earlier she defeated Tamse 6-0, 6-1 in the semis.
The Odiya girl is a very promising player according to her coach Farhan Ali. In spite of just being 10 years old she has been regularly defeating opponents in higher age categories. She has won six titles in two weeks including the ones in Haryana. Sohini is also the first player from the state to have bagged 20 AITA titles in her age group.
Speaking about Sohini’s performance, Ali said, “Sohini has been playing incredible tennis at her age category, probably the best. If she continues to perform consistently like this in the next five-six years she can not only be the poster girl of Odisha tennis but of India.”