NEW DELHI, December 20

Vishal Punna and Anikta Bhambri reduced the men and women singles finals of the DSCL Open National Tennis Championship to one-sided affairs, defeating their left-handed oppo-nents wildcards Divij Sharan and Sanaa Bhambri with incredible comfort at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

Punna , the 20-year-old No. 2 seed, did not allow the talented 17-year-old wildcard Divij Sharan any chance to display his mettle and dominated the tone and tenor of play to run out a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 winner while Ankita Bhambri , 17, asserted her supremacy over her younger sister Sanaa with a 6-3, 6-3 verdict in just over an hour.

Punna and Ankita claimed not just the National crowns but also the top prize money. Punna picked up a cheque for Rs 40,000 and Ankita for Rs 27,000 . They also secured a travel grant worth Rs 40,000 each to be able to play an ITF tournament of their choice.

While the two finals, slotted on the show courts Nos. 2 and 3, were both disappointingly one-sided and ended as defeat for the left-handers, Andhra Pradesh left-hander S Punam Reddy recovered from the loss of the second set tie-break to win the girls under-18 crown.

Later, Divij Sharan faced a twin blow when he was unable to stop the Dubai-based No. 13 Navdeep Singh from winning the junior boys title. Navdeep became the first player to take a set off Divij Sharan in the under-18 draw when he won the opening set but was held up by the second seed for a while before winning the decider as well.

A keen battle between players who like to dominate at the net was expected after Vishal Punna and Divij Sharan had showcased their evolution in the past few months in great style in the run-up to the final.

They made capital of their strengths on the way to the title clash. However, they were belied when Punna kept the younger left-hander pinned to the baseline and volleyed with precision to leave Divij Sharan frustrated.

It feels nice to be able to win this tournament where I do not have great memories. I never seemed to do well at the DSCL Open. I am glad to have got rid of that jinx,said Punna, a student of commerce in Hyderabad. had seen Divij beat Vinod Sridhar in the semifinals and knew that he has good volleying skills.

After the crushing defeat by the hardened Punna, who trained a few weeks this year in England, Divij Sharan also let the under-18 title slip away from his grasp. Navdeep Singh , all charged up after sweeping through the top-half of the draw, pulled off a three-set win after Divij Sharan fought back to win the second.

The 17-year-old Navdeep Singh , whose father played club tennis in Delhi before shifting base to Dubai, showed plenty of motivation to keep divij Sharan at bay and ensure that he would get to lay his hands on a top prize.

The women final was expected to be a high-voltage affair after the 15-year-old Sanaa Bhambri powered her way to the final with a series of upsets. Yet, when she squared up against her elder sister, Sanaa seemed to struggle to find her feet and allowed the match to become a no-contest.

Ankita completed a double when she paired up with her sister to beat No. 3 seeds Geeta Manohar and Archana Venkatraman claim the women doubles competition. The Delhi pair had beaten the top-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy (Tamil Nadu) and Shruti Dhawan (Chandigarh) in the quarterfinals and No. 4 Lata Assudani and Rati Kumar (Maharashtra) in the semifinals.

DSCL Chairman Ajay Shriram gave away the prizes to the finalists.

The results (all finals):

Men singles: 2 Vishal Punna (Andhra Pradesh) beat Divij Sharan (Delhi) 6-3, 6-2, 6-1;

Women singles: 4 Ankita Bhambri (Delhi) beat Sanaa Bhambri (Delhi) 6-3, 6-3.

Women Doubles: Ankita Bhambri and Sanaa Bhambri (Delhi) beat 3 Geeta Manohar (Andhra Pradesh) and Archana Venkatraman (Delhi) 6-1, 6-2

Boys Under-18 singles: 13 Navdeep Singh (Delhi) beat 2 Divij Sharan (Delhi) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Boys Doubles: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Tamil Nadu) and Sanam K Singh (Chandigarh) beat Sandeep Kumar and Lalit Mann (Delhi) 7-5, 6-1.

Girls under-18 singles: S Punam Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) beat 2 Madura Ranganathan (Tamil Nadu) 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-2.

Girls Doubles: Kartiki Bhatt (Maharashtra) and Sandra Sasidharan (Kerala) beat 3 Sandri Gangotri (Andhra Pradesh) and Sandhya Nagraj (Tamil Nadu) 7-6 (4), 6-4.