Dhairya Vimal of Hiranandani Foundation School defeated Zoyeb Patel of Gyan Kendra Secondary School 7-4 in the tie-breaker to advance to the final of the MSSA boys U-16 inter-school lawn tennis tournament at Bombay Gymkhana on Tuesday.

Dhairya lost both his games on serve, but recovered by converting two successive break points thereafter. With the best-of-five match tied at 2-2, the tie-breaker was employed. Here again, Dhairya lost a bit of his focus and went down 0-3 before fighting back to make it 4-4 and then going to win the match with his accurate placements. “I played well initially, but Zoyeb had a different plan and kept lobbing the ball. That was frustrating, but I kept calm and changed my movements a bit and that eventually got me the victory,” Dhairya told mid-day.