Digvijay Pratap Singh stopped the dream run of former champion and qualifier Siddharth Vishwakarma with a 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3 win in the quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Digvijay could have served out the match in the 12th game of the second set but Siddharth made a determined comeback to force a decider. Digvijay will play Nitin Kumar Sinha in the semifinals.
The other semifinal will feature top seed Niki Poonacha against Paras Dahiya. Paras lost control after leading 4-1, 40-0, but saved two set points at 4-6 in the tie-break to prevail 7-6(6), 6-3 against the energetic Rishi Reddy.
In the women’s section, Akanksha Nitture lost the plot after leading 5-0 against Vaidehi Chaudhari. Though the former won the first set 6-4, Vaidehi had understood the way to play the National junior champion and capitalised on her fluent strokes on both the flanks to prevail.
Shrivalli Bhamidipaty’s reign was cut short after she missed set points against the top seed Zeel Desai. Zeel will play Sai Samhitha in the semifinals, while Vaidehi will be up against qualifier Sharmada Balu, who was ruthless against Reshma Maruri.
The results:
Men: Quarterfinals: Niki Poonacha bt Prithvi Sekhar 6-4, 6-2; Paras Dahiya bt Rishi Reddy 7-6(6), 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt S.D. Prajwal Dev 6-4, 6-4; Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinals: S.D. Prajwal Dev & Niki Poonacha bt Paras Dahiya & Ishaque Eqbal 6-4, 7-5; Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt Ajay Malik & Karan Singh 7-5, 6-4.
Women: Quarterfinals: Zeel Desai bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 7-6(4), 6-1; Sai Samhitha bt Vanshita Pathania 6-4, 6-0; Sharmada Balu bt Reshma Maruri 6-0, 6-3; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Akanksha Nitture 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinals: Sharmada Balu & Sravya Shivani bt Nidhi Chilumula & Snehal Mane 6-1, 3-6, [10-7]; Vaidehi Chaudhari & Mihika Yadav bt Yubrani Banerjee & Rishika Sunkara 6-3, 7-5 .
