Second seed Aryan Goveas had to fight his way past Suraj Prabodh for a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 win in the men’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.
Aryan, slowly getting into his rhythm, was able to play with intensity at the crunch to shut the escape routes for the sweet-stroking Suraj, who had made the final two years ago.
The 20-year-old was on top of his game in the first set, but Suraj fought back in the second to stay on par. Aryan had a chance to close the match in the second set tie-break as he led 4-2, but erred.
In the decider, Aryan served big and unleashed strong strokes to pull through without much drama.
In the semifinals, Aryan will play Kunal Anand, who got past former Asian junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha in the second set tie-break.
A bout of nerves
Kunal felt a bout of nerves as he missed two match points at 6-3 in the tie-break, but stroked clean to emerge victorious.
Kunal has a 2-0 win-loss record against Aryan in the international professional circuit, but it should be an even battle.
The other semifinal will feature top seed Niki Poonacha and former national champion Dalwinder Singh.
Dalwinder was quite sharp and explosive in overcoming the strong challenge from Ishaque Eqbal, who failed to capitalise on a 5-3 lead in the second set.
Niki, in contrast, had a relatively easy against S.D. Prajwal Dev.
Fluent
In the women’s section, Jagmeet Kaur was quite composed and played a fluent game to beat second seed Bhuvana Kalva in straight sets.
Jagmeet will challenge four-time national champion Prerna Bhambri in the semifinals. The other semifinal will be between top seed Sowjanya Bavisetti, who saw off the challenge from Salsa Aher, and favourite Vaidehi Chaudhari.
Vaidehi has dropped only five games in all to her three opponents so far.
The results: Men: Quarterfinals: Niki Poonacha bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-4, 6-3; Dalwinder Singh bt Ishaque Eqbal 7-6(4), 7-5; Kunal Anand bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 7-6(5); Bruno Goveas bt Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinals: Ishaque Eqbal & Mohit Mayur bt Suresh Dhakshineswar & Parikshit Somani 6-4, 2-6, [10-7]; Niki Poonacha & S.D. Prajwal Dev bt Sahil Gaware & Rishab Agarwal 6-1, 6-4.
Women: Quarterfinals: Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Salsa Aher 6-2, 6-2; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-1, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri bt Shreya Tatavarthy 6-2, 7-5; Jagmeet Kaur bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-4, 6-2.
Doubles: Semifinals: Yubarani Banerjee & Sai Samhitha bt Rishika Sunkara & Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-2, 5-7, [10-8]; Sai Dedeepya & Sara Yadav bt Anusha Kondaveeti & Dakshata Patel 6-3, 3-6, [10-6] .
