Dedeepya makes it to doubles quarters
Hyderabad girl Y. Sai Dedeepya entered the doubles quarterfinals along with partener Sara Yadav of Madhya Pradesh at the Fenesta Open National tennis tournament being held here on Tuesday.
In the pre-quarters, Dedeepya & Sara beat the team of Sindhu Janagam and Sanskruthi Damera of Telangana 6-2, 6-2.
In the singles pre-quarters, Dedeepya will face Sreya Tatavarthy of Telangana on Wednesday.
On the men’s side, seasoned pros who have dominated action in the past — Vishnu Vardhan and V. M. Ranjeet failed to cross the first hurdle.
For Nitin Kumar Sinha, the seventh seed, the 6-4, 60 win against Vishnu was very satisfying for he had no trouble at all on court.
“I played against Vishnu Vardhan which is an achievement in itself as he is someone who I look up to. It was great playing against him and I am looking forward to more wins,” said Nitin.
Sixth seed Dalwinder Singh was also very happy with his 7-6(4,) 6-3 win against Ranjeet. “Today was my first match and I settled down well. The start has been amazing and I look forward to more wins,” said Dalwinder.
Top seed Nikki Poonacha had to play solid tennis on the hard courts to defeat Sai Karteek 7-5, 6-4. This being the first match, Nikki may have had to stretch more than expected.
Nikki said, “It was a great mesmerising game and a good warm up for the tournament. I aim to give my best in the coming matches.”
In the women’s singles, the favourites rolled into the second round. Sowjanya Bavisetti and multiple national title winner Prerna Bhambri underlined the action by winning smartly.
Prerna defeated Sudipta Sen 6-2, 6-3 while Sowjanya whipped Anusha 6-2, 6-1.
“It was a good experience and an interesting game. I would also want to mention it feels amazing to play oin my home pitch after a long time and going forward, would want to focus on one game at a point,” Sowjanya said after the match.
Prerna echoed a similar sentiment. “This is was my first match today and it went really well. Sudeepta played really well which made it even more interesting. I’m looking forward to give my best for tomorrow’s match,” she said.