Fifth seeded Max Batyutenko from Kazakhstan and fourth seeded Sara Saito from Japan delivered their best performance of the week to lift the boys and the girls singles  title  at the Aryan Pumps Asian Junior Tennis Championship organised by Deccan Gymkhana under the auspices of ITF, Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association and Pune Metropolitan District Tennis Association which concluded at the Deccan Gymkhana Tennis courts in Pune .

Among boys, it turned out to be a lopsided contest as Maharashtra player Saheb Sodhi went down 6-2, 6-1 against Max Batyutenko of Kazakhstan  in an hour and one minute contest.

Among girls third seeded Shruti Ahlawat opened up the match nicely with winning the first set 7-5 but then Japanese player Saito rallied back strongly to win the next two sets 6-1, 6-0.

The Singles winners got 300 points while the runner up got 210 points respectively.

“Sodhi is a very good player but today he could not give 100 percent on the court, I enjoyed the condition of the courts in Pune as it suited  my game. Since I train in countries which have hot temperatures, I enjoyed playing tennis in India and especially the weather in Pune,” said Max Batyutenko who trains under the coaches Oleg Ogay and head coach Dmitriy Morolev in Kazakhstan.

Morolev played three weeks of tennis in India – in Delhi tournament, he lost in the quarter-final and then in Grade 3 last week in Pune, he went down in the semi-final.

“Today I managed to pull victory in the final. Now I will be playing the Australian Open, After adding 300 points from this tournament my rankings will be somewhere near 100. Doing well in Grand Slams is my future aim,” added Batyutenko.

Sodhi who trained  with Babu and Supriya Mallaya and now with Kedar Shah in Pune under  added, “I am playing tennis since last four weeks so it took toll on my body, last few matches in the tournament went into three sets and especially after yesterday’s match (semi-final match against Nishant Dabas on Friday) I was completely drained and in final I just could not handle the pain of right hand shoulder,”

For Saito it was the second week in a row where she shattered the dream of an Indian player and clinched the title.

Last week Saito had defeated Vaishnavi Adakar while on Saturday, she did not allow Ahlawat any chances to come back after she went down in the first set.

“After first set I got into the rhythm and then it turned out to be a very easy contest,” said Saito.

The prizes were given away at the hands of Mr.Asim Gupta, principal secretary of relief & rehabilitation department, government of maharashtra, Mr.Subhash Sutar and Mr.Prashant Sutar, VP of MSLTA and  CMD of Aryan Pumps, Former Asian Champion & Davis Cooper Sandeep Kirtane, Mr.Sunder Iyer Hon Sec MSLTA.   Mr. Vishwas Lohkare, VP of MSLTA, Mr.Girish Inamdar, Hon. Secretary of Deccan Gymkhana.  Mr.Ashwin Girme, tennis secretary of Deccan Gymkhana, Mr.Mihir Kelkar, Finance Secretary of Deccan Gymkhana, ITF supervisor Leena Nageshkar were present on the occasion.

Following are the Results: Boys Singles: Final: Max Batyutenko (Kaz) [5] bt Saheb Sodhi (Ind) 6-2, 6-1;

Girls Singles: Final: Sara Saito (Jpn) [4] bt Shruti Ahlawat (Ind) [3] 5-7, 6-1, 6-0.