TENNIS Sinha, Haddin book last eight spots
Nitin Kumar Sinha defeated Faisal Qamar while Bava Haddin tamed Jayesh Pungliya to qualify for the Fenesta national tennis championship men’s singles quarterfinals here on Wednesday.
Sinha outplayed eighth seed Qamar 6-3, 6-2 while second seed Haddin outthought Pungliya 7-5, 6-4 in the second round at the DLTA Complex.
Sinha next takes on D. Singh, who ousted qualifier N. Golmei 6-1, 6-1.
Qamar could not break Sinha’s all-round game as his over reliance on the backhand slice was not enough to trouble the Bengal boy. Haddin now faces Arjun Kadhe who dispatched Hardeep Singh Sandhu 7-5, 6-1 in his second round match.
Veteran Nitten Kirrtane also reached the last-eight with an easy 6 2 6 1 win over Siddhanth Banthia.
The 43-year-old will now take on top seed Suraj Prabodh, who defeated Armaan Bhatia 6-3, 6-1.
In women’s singles, Bhuvana Kalva knocked out third seed Shweta Rana 6-2, 6-4. Bhuvana will lock horns with for mer champion Prerna Bhambri, who trounced Moulika B Ram 6-0, 6-0.
Top seed Zeel Desai also booked a quarter-final berth with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Shreya Gulia.
Next up for Zeel is Shaikh Humera, who emerged triumphant against eighth seed Sara Yadav 6-3, 6-4.
In the bottom half, Priknle Singh got a walkover from an injured Yubrani Banerjee to set up a quarter-final matchup with Tanisha Kashyap, who beat N. Raj 6-4, 6-1.
Mahak Jain and Sai Samhita Chamarthi completed the quarter-final spots with their respective wins. Mahak got past Snehadevi S. Reddy 6-2 6-2 while Samhita beat S. Soha63 61