Calm Sheil Kotecha eases into ITF Junior Circuit third round

What you need to know:

  • Kenyan players were knocked out in the first round of the girls' singles category.

Sheil Kotecha on Tuesday launched his title defence with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Serbia’s Oliver Jevtovic in the second round of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) East African Junior Circuit Under-18 tournament at the Nairobi Club.

The Kenyan, who got a bye to the second round, needed only 58 minutes to dispatch his opponent and seal his place in Wednesday's third round of the boys' singles encounter.

Kotecha, seeded top in this week's leg after he clinched the first leg title last Saturday, was too strong for Jevtovic and barely broke sweat as he cruised to yet another win.

"I am glad I got off to a winning start. It is going to be difficult to defend my title because I know other players have worked on their games but I'm up to the challenge," a confident Kotecha told Daily Nation Sport.

The Kenyan beat India’s Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli 6-4, 7-6 in the first leg to claim his first major win of the year, joining an elite group of three other home players who have won the ITF Under-18 boys' title.

In Tuesday's encounter, the 18-year-old was off to a blistering start as he took a commanding 4-1 lead as his opponent paid the price for poor service.

The first set was over soon afterwards after Jevtovic double faulted to hand the advantage to Kotecha who calmly won the set after an excellent back hand return serve sailed past his opponent.

The Serbian was unable to conjure a comeback in the second set and the same script was repeated as Kotecha confidently put him to sword with another calm display to extend his good run at the Nairobi Club.

It was however heartache for another home player, Ryan Randeik, as he crashed out of the competition after losing 6-1, 6-3 to Poland's Pawel Jankowtak in another boys’ singles second round clash.

"My decision making was poor today and he (Pawel) capitalised on that to win. I have to go back to the drawing board and work harder for the final leg," Randiek said.

Other players who progressed to the third round were Matthew Beecher of Great Britain, who upset fourth seed Karan Srivastava 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Kai Maxted also of Great Britain beat ninth seed Dev Javia of India 6-0, 7-6 (5).

In the girls' matches, top seed Celestine Ella Avomo beat French girl Isabelle Bassi 6-4, 6-2 while defending champion Daeven Achong of Netherlands saw off Danusa Amalia of Brazil 6-0, 6-0.

Kenyan players were knocked out in the first round of the girls' singles category.