Pune: Indian boys trounced China 3-0 to storm into the quarterfinals of the Junior Davis Cup (Under-16) Asia-Oceania Final Qualifying in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.Tavish Pahwa provided an explosive start with a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of Junze Wu before Hruthik Katakam put it past Hongjin Qi 6-3, 6-2 in the singles matches.Tavish and Hruthik then combined to to beat Qi and Chuan Ding 6-3, 6-3 in the doubles as India topped Group C with an all-win record.The team, coached by Rana Banerjee, had earlier beaten Indonesia 2-1 and Malaysia 3-0 in the round-robin phase.India had fielded Ribhav Saroha as the second singles player against Indonesia with Katakam featuring only in the doubles with Pahwa. Saroha lost 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 to Rafalentino Ali da Costa in a gruelling 2-hour 46-minute clash, India’s lone loss in the tournament so far.Subsequently, Katakam and Pahwa played all the three matches against Malaysia and China.“He (Katakam) was having high fever. But had to make him play the doubles to seal the tie,” Banerjee said, adding “he is better now.”India face Uzbekistan, who finished second behind Australia in Group B, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.In the other last-eight matches, Japan (A1) will take on Korea (D2), Australia (B1) play China (C2), and Hong Kong (A2) face hosts Kazakhstan (D1).Chinese Taipei vs Malaysia, Turkmenistan vs Thailand, and Vietnam vs Pakistan are the pairings in the playoffs for the 9th-16th spots with Indonesia getting a bye in the first round.The 16 teams were placed in groups of four, with the semifinalists set to advance to the World Finals.
