Second seed Haadin Bava put his best game on display to oust two-time finalist and favourite Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-3 in the men’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
On a day when the sentimental favourites like the four-time champion Prerna Bhambri, and former winners Mohit Mayur and Nitten Kirrtane were shown the door by Bhuvana Kalva, Manish Sureshkumar and top seed Suraj Prabodh respectively, Haadin impressed with his all-round game.
Building his game on a strong pair of feet that helped him make improbable returns a routine feature of his game, Haadin handled the climax with calm composure in a battle of wits that spanned two hours and 55 minutes.
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Arjun was forced to play his best and after squandering the advantage of an early break in the second set, capitalised on his third set point in the tie-break to force the decider.
From being down 0-2 therein, Haadin played sharp to shut the doors on Arjun with a decisive break in the eighth game, and served out the match without any drama.
In the semifinals, Haadin will play another power-player Dalwinder Singh, who sweated it out against the Asian juniior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha in three sets. Nitin, running short of energy owing to a string of matches, was later beaten in the junior event as well by the strongly-built Sacchitt Sharma.
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Manish Sureshkumar put out Mohit Mayur in three sets after a slow start. Manish was steady with his strokes and Mohit, who had lost to him on the same courts in the Challenger qualifying event last year, did not have the patience to fight it out, as he managed to win two games in two sets.
Suraj Prabodh had all the patience to tame the crafty Nitten Kirrtane. After a dominant first set, Suraj failed to capitalise on a string of breakpoints early in the second set, and dropped serve in the fifth game to complicate matters. However, he broke back and was fluent in the eventual tie-break.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men: Suraj Prabodh bt Nitten Kirrtane 6-2, 7-6(4); Manish Sureshkumar bt Mohit Mayur 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; Dalwinder Singh bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Haadin Bava bt Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-3.
Women: Zeel Desai bt Humera Shaikh 6-2, 6-4; Bhuvana Kalva 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; Tanisha Kashyap bt Prinkle Singh 6-1, 6-0; Mahak Jain bt Sai Samhitha 6-2, 6-2.
Boys: Sacchitt Sharma bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-0; Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy bt Fardeen Qamar 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Dhruv Sunish bt Dev Javia 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Siddhant Banthia bt Amit Beniwal 6-0, 6-0.
Girls: Akanksha Bhan bt Shivani Manjanna 6-2, 6-2; Sathwika Sama bt Prerna Vichare 7-6(6), 6-1; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Humera Shaikh 6-1, 6-3; Tanisha Kashyap bt Sravya Shivani 6-2, 6-1.