Nitten Kirrtane tamed Vijay Kannan 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in a battle of former champions in the men’s first round of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.
The 43-year-old Nitten was more energetic as he broke Vijay, who was serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider, and won three games on the trot to close it out.
Vijay, who had finished runner-up in the last National grass court championship, conceded that his opponent was more fit of the two.
Practising well
“I missed the Futures as I was not sure about playing the qualifying. I have been practising well, hitting with Arjuna Kadhe and Ankita Raina in Pune.
“I trained with Mihir Tenarikar that has helped a lot,” said Kirrtane.
“I have not been playing many tournaments. I was rusty at the start. Nitten is very fit and plays a lot,” said Vijay.
In another lively match, top seed Suraj Prabodh got past Ansu Kumar Bhuyan in three sets. Ansu repented missing three setpoints in the first set tie-break, and cramped in the third set. He had beaten Suraj in their last meeting.
Manish Sureshkumar knocked out fifth seed S.D. Prajwal Dev in straight sets while, second seed Haadin Bava had to be at his fighting best to tame Aryan Goveas after losing the first set.
The results (first round): Men: Suraj Prabodh bt Ansu Kumar Bhuyan 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3; Nitten Kirrtane bt Vijay Kannan 6-3, 3-6, 7-5; Kunal Anand bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-2; Manish Sureshkumar bt S.D. Prajwal Dev 6-3, 6-4; Faisal Qamar bt Suresh Dhakshineswar 7-6(3), 6-4; Dalwinder Singh bt Paras Dahiya 0-6, 6-2, 6-4; Jayesh Pungliya bt Digvijay Singh Mehta 6-3, 6-3; Haadin Bava bt Aryan Goveas 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Women: Zeel Desai bt Harshita Chugh 6-2, 6-0; Shreya Gulia bt Prakriti Banwani 6-3, 6-2; Shweta Rana bt Sindhu Janagam 6-3, 6-3; Bhuvana Kalva bt Shruti Gupta 6-1, 6-0; Yubrani Banerjee bt Smriti Singh 6-1, 6-1; Snehadevi Reddy bt Arushi Bhasin 6-0, 6-0; Soha Sadiq bt Samriti Punyani 6-4, 6-4.
