Hyderabad girls cruise
Humera, Sathwika, Rashmika do well at tennis nationals
New Delhi, Oct. 2: Siddharth Rawat from Uttar Pradesh needed to dig deep into his reserves before outsmarting Kaza Sharma from Andhra Pradesh 64, 7-5 in the men’s singles first round of the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship here on Tuesday.
Siddharth was shaky but used his cool temperament to advance to the second round. “It was definitely a tricky match. Kaza is a good friend of mine and deserves to be top seed but his ranking has dropped so we played in the early stage. I am glad I made it through,” said Siddharth.
Seasoned campaigner V. M. Ranjeet showed he still has enough left in him as he moved past S. Prithvi in straight sets on a sunny day at the DLTA complex. Former national champion Mohit Mayur beat last year’s U16 national champion Dakshineshwar Suresh 6-3, 6-2.
On the women’s side, fifth seed Humera Shaik of Telangana survived a scare as she had to fight her way against Pratibha P. Narayan 7-6 (6), 0-6, 6-3.
However, in the Girls Under 18 second round, Humera scored an easy win against Chavvi Rathi 61, 6-0. After her women’s singles match she said, “The match was not tough but I made it tough and then I played well. It was my second singles today. Overall feel great and am looking forward to rest of the matches.”
Another Telangana player, Sathwika Sama too scored an easy win, brushing aside Vanshita Pathania of Karnataka 6-1, 6-1 in the women’s section. In another match, Andhra Pradesh’s Anusha Kondaveeti beat Arti Muniyan of Tamil Nadu 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Telugu girls did well in the girls U18 too. Srivalli Rashmika Bamidipaty of Telangana silenced S. Senthil Kumar of Maharashtra 6-2, 6-2 while Lakshmi Sahithi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh got past Pooja Ingale of Maharashtra with an identical scoreline — 6-2, 6-2.
In the women’s section, sixth seed Ramya Natrajan beat statemate Prathyusha Rachap (TN) 63, 6-1 while Muskan Gupta from Delhi ousted Mihika Yadav 6-3, 61.
Delhi’s Shweta Rana defeated Ayushi Tanwar from Rajasthan 6-1, 6-4 in the women’s singles first round. Shweta was in good touch and summed up her win by saying: “Today’s match was good for me. I think I played sharp and my opponent was a junior. The Fenesta Open is a nice platform and I feel confident when I am here.”
In Boys U-18 second round, top seed Siddhant Bhantia defeated Delhi’s Rohan Mehra 6-2, 6-3. Siddhant faced little trouble in executing a regulation win in the junior section. “To play against last year’s runner-up was not easy. I came into the match with self-belief. I think the biggest factor in today’s match was my serve, I remember not giving him one point on my serve in the first three games. I was consistent and persistent,” said Siddhant.
SELECTED RESULTS
Women’s singles first round: Humera Shaik (TS, 5) bt Prathiba P. Narayan (KA) 7-6 (6), 0-6, 6-3; Ramya Natrajan (TN) (seed 6) bt Prathyusha Rachap (TN) 6-3, 6-1; Shweta Rana (DL) bt Ayushi Tanwar(RJ) 6-1, 6-4; Sathwika Sama (TS) bt Vanshita Pathania (KA) 6-1, 6-1; Anusha Kondaveeti(AP) bt Arti Muniyan(TN) 2-6, 7-5, 6-0; Muskan Gupta (DL) bt Mihika Yadav(MH) 6-3, 6-1; Natasha Pahla (GA) bt Kaavya Sawhney (UP) 6-1, 6-2.
Men’s singles first round: Siddharth Rawat (seed 3) (UP) bt Kaza V Sharma (AP) 6-4, 7-5; Nitin Kumar Sinha (seed 5) (WB) bt Dhruv Sunish (MH) 6-3, 6-1; Mohit M. JayaPrakash (seed 8) (TN) bt Dakshineshwar Suresh (TN) 6-3, 6-2; V. M. Ranjeet (TN) bt Prthvi S (TN) 6-1, 63; Anshu Bhuyan (OD) bt Ajay Malik (H) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; S. D. Prajwal Dev (KA) bt Armaan Bhatia (MH) 7-6(3), 61; Anirudh C. P. (TS) bt Abhinav Sanjeev (TN) 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; Yugal Bansal (DL) bt Sivadeep Kosaraju (TS) 6-3, 7-5;
Girls U-18 singles second round: Gargi Pawar (MH) bt Salsa Aher (seed 1) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Farhat Qamar (RJ) bt Sunskrithi Damera (TS) 3-6, 6-2, 7-5; Muskan Gupta (DL) bt Riti Agarwal (KA) 6-3, 6-0; Humera Shaik (TS) bt Chhavi Rathi 6-1, 6-0; I. Singh (HR) bt Kaavya Sawhney (seed 3) (UP) 6-4, 64; Vanshika Choudhary (UP) bt Ranee Singh (RJ) 6-3, 6-1; Prathiba Prasad Narayan (KA) bt Sanya Singh (HR) 6-1, 6-2; Sara Yadav (MP) bt Prerna Vichare (MH) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Trisha Vinod (KL) bt Smriti Bhasin (TS) 6-1, 6-4; Sarah Dev (PB) bt Bella S. Tamhankar (MH) 6-3, 7-5; Srivalli Rashmika Bamidipaty (TS) bt S. Senthil Kumar (MH) 6-2, 6-2; Vipasa Mehra (TN) bt Prinkle Singh (seed 4) (J&K) 6-1, 6-1; Rutuja Chaphalkar (MH) bt Bhakti Parwani (seed 5) (GJ) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Kashish Bhatia (DL) bt Bhakti Shah (TS) 6-1, 75; Lakshmi Sahithi Reddy (AP) bt Pooja Ingale (MH) 6-2, 6-2; S. Vijay Gaware (MH) bt Yana Dhamija (HR) 60, 6-0.
Boys U-18 singles second round: Siddhant Banthia (seed 1) (MH) bt Rohan Mehra(DL) 6-2, 6-3; Nishant Dabas (DL) bt Manan Singh(DL) 6-4, 7-5; Krish Patel (GJ) bt Sushant Dabas (HR) 6-4, 6-2; Treetha Shashank (TS) bt Atharva Shrma(MH) 6-4, 6-2; Dev Javia (seed 4) (GJ) bt Sarthak Suden (DL) 6-1, 6-2; Madhwin Kamath (GJ) bt A. Ayub Khan (TS) 6-4, 6-1; Dhruv Tangri (PB) bt Akhilendran Indrabalan (DL) 6-4, 6-2; Rhythm Malhotra (DL) bt Sammr Raina (DL) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Kabir Hans (OD) bt Senthil Kumar (TN) 7-5, 6-0; Ajay Malik (seed 6) (HR) bt Jaipal Singh (HR) 6-2, 6, 3.