Tunis (Tunisia), May 28 (IANS) Promising Preyesh Raj Suresh went down fighting 1-3 against Russian Ilia Koniukhov in the under-15 boys single quarter-finals at the 2021 WTT Youth Star Contender Tunis here.

Chennai-based Suresh, current sub-junior national champion, showed great resistance against his opponent and made him work hard for each point. However, Suresh failed to gain the required momentum and lost 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 4-11 after a hard fight.

On Saturday, India's Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh will begin their campaign in the under-19 girls' singles group stage.

Earlier, in the under-19 boys singles, Payas Jain and Deepit Patil exited the tournament in the pre-quarterfinals and group stage respectively.

The tournament, scheduled from May 26-30, is the first youth international tournament where Indian paddlers are competing in since the coronavirus outbreak.

--IANS

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