Karman Kaur Thandi (image courtesy @joeoffenbach on Twitter)
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17-year-old Karman Kaur Thandi brought delight to Indian fans by stunning the 16th seed and Junior World No. 20 Katharina Hobgarski of Germany 6-3, 7-6(3) in the first round of Junior Girls’ Singles at the US Open on Monday.
After sizzling through the first set by virtue of a single break, Thandi continued her dominance in the second set as well and went up 5-2 against the German. But nerves showed up for the Indian and she failed to successfully serve out the match twice, despite holding a match point at 5-4.
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Hobgarski who reached the Australian Open Girls’ Doubles final and has two Grade I singles titles to her credit in 2015, forced a second set tie-break. Thandi regrouped just in time to play a confident tie-break and clinched the match after 1 hour 27 minutes.
Thandi, who was declared the Under-16 2014 WTA Future Stars champion last year, has been enjoying a rich vein of form lately and has climbed to a career-high 80 in the ITF Junior Rankings. She recently reached the round of 16 and the semi-finals in two back-to-back Grade I tournaments in the USA and Canada right before coming to the US Open.
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Karman Kaur Thandi will meet World No. 28 Evgeniya Levashova of Russia in the second round.
Yadlapalli exits
Meanwhile, Karman’s compatriot Pranjala Yadlapalli – who was seeded 15th – did not have the same fate as she crashed out in the first round on Monday. Yadlapalli lost 6(1)-7, 3-6 to unseeded Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece in a 1 hour 24 minute contest.
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About the author
Sudeshna Banerjee
Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.
Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.
Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.
Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.
When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.
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