It was not a good day for favourites in the quarterfinals of the Fenesta National Tennis Championship, with upsets in both the men’s and women’s sections here on Thursday.
While defending champion Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash lost tamely to unseeded Siddarth Rawat 6-4, 6-0 in just over an hour, top seed Rishika Sunkara was knocked out by sixth seed Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4 at the DLTA Complex.
Mohit’s loss was the biggest upset of the tournament so far. The big-serving Mohit was expected to win easily against Siddarth, but the third seed was erratic and never managed to get any rhythm. While the first set went with serve, except for a break in the third game — enough to hand Siddarth the set — the second was a contrast.
Mohit’s game fell apart completely as he committed several double faults and struggled to get the ball in.
Siddarth wrapped up the second set in just 25 minutes and with it, the match.
Fourth seed Nitten Kirrtane also lost, going down 6-0, 6-4 to youngster Ronit Bisht of Delhi. Kirrtane, a former champion, was not helped by a neck cramp that forced him to take a medical timeout in the second set.
Quick-footedOn the women’s side, Rishika, part of the Indian team at the Asian Games, was unable to match the quick-footed Vaishnavi. The first set went with serve till the tie-break, when Vaishnavi made good use of her powerful groundstrokes to edge past Rishika.
Vaishnavi raced to a 4-1 lead in the second before the India No. 4 fought back. She reeled off five straight games, breaking Vaishnavi in the sixth, eighth and 10th, to take the match into a decider.
It looked like going either way as both players were broken twice each within the first eight games, but Vaishnavi managed to hold on for victory.
The results:
Men (quarterfinals): Karunuday Singh bt V.M. Ranjeet 6-4, 6-2; Siddharth Rawat bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash 6-4, 6-0; Ronit Bisht bt Nitten Kirrtane 6-0, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan bt Chandril Sood 6-1, 6-1.
Doubles (semifinals): P.C. Vignesh & Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Anvit Bendre & Shaikh Abdullah 6-4, 6-3.
Women (quarterfinals): Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy bt Rishika Sunkara 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4; Karman Kaur Thandi bt Vaniya Dangwal 6-4, 6-4; Prerna Bhambri bt Sharon Paul 6-3, 6-2; Shweta Rana bt Amrita Mukherjee 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.
Doubles (semifinals): Riya Bhatia & Sharon Paul bt Likhita Shetty & Preethi Srinivasan 6-1, 7-5.
Boys: U-18: Vidit Vaghela bt Vashisht Vinod Cheruku 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1; B.R. Nikshep bt Yugal Bansal 7-6(5), 6-1; Aryan Goveas bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4; Dalwinder Singh bt Manish Sureshkumar 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Doubles (semifinals): Param Pun & Paramveer Bajwa bt Shrey Gupta & Vikrant Dahiya 6-4, 6-1.
Girls: U-18: Karman Kaur Thandi bt Jennifer Luikham 6-0, 6-0; Simran Kaur Sethi bt Ramya Natrajan 7-5, 6-4; Abinikka Renganathan bt Harsha S. Challa 6-1, 6-2; Mahak Jain bt Himani Mor 6-0, 6-2.
Doubles (semifinals): Zeel Desai & Snehal Mane bt Harsha Challa & Prinkle Singh 6-2, 6-4; Mahak Jain & Shivani Ingle bt Rishika Ravindran & Sai R. Avanthika 6-4, 7-5.
