Qualifier Alex Solanki extended his good run when he beat fifth seed Anvit Bendre 6-4, 7-5 in the men’s pre-quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.
On a day when the top players — Sriram Balaji, defending champion Vishnu Vardhan, former champions Mohit Mayur and V.M. Ranjeet, apart from last year’s runner-up Sidharth Rawat — showcased their best game, the 16-year-old Solanki dodged his way past the 20-year-old Bendre who had played the men’s ITF Futures tournaments recently in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai.
Bendre, who had won the ITF men’s doubles title in Mandya in May with Akash Wagh, did take a 4-1 lead in both sets, but was unable to drive home the advantage against an opponent who had strength and craft.
Solanki will be tested further in the quarterfinals against Vishnu Vardhan who sharpened his strong game against Vlasier Khate.
Ranjeet asserted his class against another qualifier Nitin Kumar Sinha, who had earlier negotiated a tricky opponent Anurag Nenwani for a quarterfinal berth in the under-18 section.
Ranjeet who had beaten Sriram Balaji, the current top seed for the national title in 2008, was all praise for Nitin Kumar and said that the Bengal lad, with strong legs and a forceful game, had it in him to win the junior title.
Nitin Kumar will be up against Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy, who got past Shramay Dhawan in straight sets. While Abhimanyu jumped for joy on making the quarterfinals, Shramay responded by smashing the racquet on court in such fashion that it went flying to the other side.
Referee Puneet Gupta issued a stern warning to Shramay, and in fact inspected the court to see whether there was any damage to the playing surface.
In the men’s section, lanky Siddharth Vishwakarma missed five match-points at 6-1 in the second set tie-break against Asian Youth Games medallist Garvit Batra, before sealing the match to set up a quarterfinal against Sriram Balaji.
Mohit Mayur, not that mobile as he was when he won the title two years ago, will face Rawat. Shaikh Abdullah stopped qualifier Lakshit Sood in straight sets, as the latter was unable to capitalise on leads of 4-1 and 3-0 in the first and second sets respectively. Abdullah will challenge Ranjeet.
In the women’s section, Snehadevi Reddy, Eetee Maheta, Prerna Bhambri, Sowjanya Bavisetti, Riya Bhatia, Shweta Rana and Sai Samhitha were joined by the Asian junior champion Y. Pranjala in the quarterfinals.
Three time champion Prerna stopped Vaidehi Chaudhari, who had endured a tough three-setter in beating seventh seed Sabhyata Nihalani in the girls’ event earlier. Prerna dropped only two games, but may have to be at her best on Thursday against the free-stroking left-handed fifth seed Sowjanya.
The results (pre-quarterfinals): Men: Sriram Balaji bt Gokul Suresh 6-1, 6-2; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Garvit Batra 6-2, 7-6(6); Mohit Mayur bt Rashein Samuel 6-2, 6-3; Sidharth Rawat bt Sai Saran Reddy 6-1, 6-1; Shaikh Abdullah bt Lakshit Sood 6-4, 6-4; V.M. Ranjeet bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-0, 6-3; Alex Solanki bt Anvit Bendre 6-4, 7-5; Vishnu Vardhan bt Vlasier Khate 6-4, 6-2.
Women: Snehadevi Reddy bt Samriti Punyani 6-0, 6-1; Eetee Maheta bt Vanya Dangwal 6-2, 6-3; Prerna Bhambri bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-1, 6-1; Soowjanya Bavisetti bt Teertha Iska 6-1, 6-3; Riya Bhatia bt Isha Budwal 6-0, 6-0; Y. Pranjala bt Aarja Chakraborty 6-0, 6-0; Sai Samhitha bt Shivika Burman 6-4, 6-1; Shweta Rana bt Aarthi Muniyan 6-3, 6-3.
Under-18: Boys: Aryan Goveas bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 6-4; Manish Sureshkumar bt Siddhant Banthia 6-3, 6-1; Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy bt Shramay Dhawan 6-4, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Anurag Nenwani 6-1, 7-6(2); Alex Solanki bt Param Pun 6-3, 6-3; Parikshit Somani bt Yugal Bansal 6-1, 7-6(5); Abhinav Sanjeev bt Aditya Vasisht 6-4, 6-4; B.R. Nikshep bt Udayan Bhakar 7-5, 6-4.
Girls: Zeel Desai bt Shivani Amineni 6-0, 6-1; Jenifer Luikham bt Harsha Sai Challa 6-4, 6-1; Mahak Jain bt Nida Kamal 6-2, 6-1; Akanksha Bhan bt Vanshika Sawhney 7-5, 6-2; Lalita Devarakonda bt Humeira Shaikh 6-2, 6-2; Prinkle Singh bt Himani Mor 6-2, 6-2; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Sabhyata Nihalani 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Sathwika Sama bt Abinikka Renganathan 7-5, 6-0.
