M’lorean Rikeetha Pereira shines in ATF tournament

M’lorean Rikeetha Pereira shines in ATF tournament

Mangalore Today News Network

Dubai, July 8: Rikeetha, Mangalorean and young tennis player from UAE, is hoping to cap off her successful run in Syria with a few more titles by the end of this week.

"The idea is to go out there and play your best, and the results will come," Rikeetha Pereira, one of the two youngsters told from Syria.

Rikeetha and Kareem Allaf made a strong impression at last week’s Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) tournament in Aleppo.

Rikeetha won the girls under-14 singles and doubles partnering with Pakistan’s Eman Quraishi, while Kareem won the singles and ended doubles runner-up in the boy’s competition.

"It is definitely a good feeling to win a singles title. And when we won the doubles, I sure did get a good boost to my confidence," Rikeetha said.

"I hope I can carry forward this confidence into this week’s competition in Damascus and return to Dubai with a clean sweep," she added.

One match at a time

A bit disappointed for not picking up the doubles title last week, Allaf is committed to do well this week. "I want to win both the singles and the doubles," Kareem insisted.

"There is going to be no magic formula for me. I just want to focus and concentrate and take one match at a time and the results will follow," he added.

Both Rikeetha and Kareem have received a first-round bye in the singles at the ATF U-14 competition being held at the Mouhafaza Club, Damascus this week.

"I have teamed up with Eman [Quraishi] in the doubles this week too and I hope we can replicate our performance from last week," Rikeetha said.

Eman, who turns 13 later this month, was equally thrilled to taste success in the doubles, and that too, after teaming up with an Indian partner. "We hit it off very well and it has been fun playing with her [Rikeetha]," she said.

"After last week’s experience there are so many things to learn from and I feel confident that we can win this week too," she added.

Kareem hopes to continue playing on the circuit by participating in similar events scheduled in Tunisia and Morocco later this summer.

Rikeetha on the other hand is planning to return to Dubai, after which she will head to the Nick Bollettieri Academy in the US for a summer programme.
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