Nepal produced mixed result in the boys’ event of the South Asian Regional Qualifying for the ITF Asian 12 & Under Team Championships at the Satdobato Tennis Courts on Tuesday.

The hosts defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 in a game that had halted on Monday due to bad weather after Aarav Samrat Hada lost the first game to Wenuka Kithnula 6-4, 6-2. Following the resumption on Tuesday, Aryan Giri defeated Vichithya Sarindu Nilaweera 6-4, 0-6, 6-7 (7) to level the scores. The Nepali duo then combined to beat Sri Lanka 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 to earn an important victory in Group ‘B’.

After most of the matches on the opening day on Monday were affected due to rain, Tuesday’s matches had to be confined to shortened ones and Nepali boys lost their second Group ‘B’ game to Bangladesh 2-1. Hada lost to Md Roman Hossain 5-3, 4-1 and Giri bowed down to Mahadi Hasan Alve 4-1, 0-4, 4-1. The duo then lost the doubles 5-4 (2), 4-2.

Nepali girls, who had opened the tournament with a 3-0 victory over Maldives on Monday, lost their second Group ‘A’ match to India 3-0. Sharvani Shrestha lost to Sweta Samanta 4-0, 4-1 and Isha Shree Shah succumbed to Anjali Rathi 4-1, 4-0. The Indian pair won the doubles 4-0, 4-0. In a Group ‘B’ game, Sri Lanka eased to a 3-0 victory over Bhutan.

Meanwhile in Group ‘A’, Indian boys sidelined Bhutan 3-0 and Sri Lanka edged Pakistan 2-1 in Group ‘B’. Among the matches that were not possible on Monday, Bangladesh beat Pakistan 2-1 and Bhutan overcame Maldives 3-0 in Group ‘B’ and Group ‘A’ games respectively. Bangladesh girls also beat Bhutan 2-1 in Group ‘B’.

The seven-nation tournament launched jointly by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Asian Tennis Federation for the first time will send the top two nations—in both the girls and boys categories—into the ITF Asian U-12 Team Championships to be held in Kazakhstan in December. The seven teams in the South Asian Qualifying are divided into two groups from where the top two will reach the semi-finals.