Sheil Kotecha looks to do the double

Defending Champion Sheil Kotecha is confident of retaining his International Tennis Federation (ITF) East African Junior Circuit Under-18 tournament title.

The Kenyan got a bye to the second round of the second leg of the international tourney which got underway on Monday at the Nairobi Club.

He gets his title defence underway on Tuesday against Olivier Jevtovic of Serbia in the boys’ singles second round match.

Kotecha beat unseeded Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli of India 6-4, 7-6 in the first leg on Saturday to claim his first major title of the year.

“Winning the title last week gives me the confidence to do better this week and I am up to the challenge of going all the way once again,” Kotecha told Daily Nation Sport.

His heroics saw him replace compatriot Kevin Cheruiyot as top seed for this week’s leg and the 18-year old believes he can handle the pressure of the lime light.

“It won’t be easy because I know my opponents will make adjustments too their game and I will also need to adjust and show consistency to reign supreme,” he added.

Kotecha will also be hoping to do well in the doubles, where he and Cheruiyot lost in the semi-final.

Cheruiyot is seeded third for this week’s leg and has also received a bye to the second round where he will take on Rwanda’s Fabrice Tuyishime.

Cheruiyot, who had been tipped to go all the way, was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Bollipalli.

“I have worked on the mistakes that cost me last week and I promise to come back stronger this week. I want to go all the way to the final in the remaining two legs,” Cheruiyot said.

In Monday’s first round matches, Kenyan players posted mixed results in the opening round. Ryan Randiek was the sole home winner as Albert Njogu ,Sneha Kotecha and Faith Nyabera all lost their respective boys’ and girls’ encounters.

Randiek beat Ugandan Boris Aguma 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to book a date with 14th seed Poland’s Pawel Jankowiak in today’s second round boys’ singles clash.

Randiek recovered from a poor start to take the final two sets.

Njogu on the other hand went down 3-6, 1-6 to Great Britain’s Matthw Beecher while Sneha lost 6-2, 2-6, 6-7(8) to Ukraine’s Oleksandra Balaba in a girls’ first round clash while Nyaberi lost 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 6-1 to India’s Trisha Vinod.