New Delhi, June 29: Twelve-year-old unseeded Tanisi Kirtani went down 2-3 to the top-seeded Orikamise Ester in the semifinals of the Egypt Open Junior and Cadets Championships, held at Cairo last week. She was awarded the bronze for her efforts in the Under-15 section of the Cadets event. This was the first appearance in an event of this type for this girl from Goa.

In what turned out to be a thrilling semifinal, the match went down to the wire with Ester, who eventually won the crown—she beat Hesham Roland 3-0 in the final—had some anxious moments. Easter clinched the decider with minimum points to enter the final with a 15-13, 10-12, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9 score-line, for the best match of the Open for the girl from Goa.

Earlier, Taninis downed Taha Emma 3-1 in the quarterfinals and Yasser Manam 3-0 in the pre-quarters. In the round robin league, Tanisi blanked out all her three opponents, Khaled Malak, Essam Zeina and Fathy Hend of Egypt with an identical 3-0 margins.

Tanisi who also played the Under-19 Junior event went down fighting in the pre-quarterfinals to Egypt’s Fathy whom she had beaten in the Team Championship. In the team Championship Tanisi had the consolation of beating the eventual silver medalist Kamal Shahd.