Nitin Kumar Sinha played a robust all-court game to beat former champion Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-1 in the men’s pre-quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Wednesday.
Ready for the challenge
The 22-year-old Nitin, seeded third and having played a lot over the past few weeks in the international circuit in Egypt, was ready for the challenge against the 34-year-old Olympian who has not played the circuit since April. Vishnu did serve and stroke with intensity but Nitin was able to turn the flow in his favour with a better fare.
Nitin will play S.D. Prajwal Dev who beat another former champion V.M. Ranjeet for the loss of four games.
Paras Dahiya, who had to fight it out in three sets against Fardeen Qamar, will take on Rishi Reddy, who beat fifth seed Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam.
Digvijay Pratap Singh beat former champion Dalwinder Singh to set up a quarterfinal against another former champion Siddharth Vishwakarma.
In the women’s section, top seed Zeel Desai had to step up her game to beat Shreya Tatavarthy 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, and will play reigning champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty.
Reshma Maruri beat National junior champion Shruti Ahlawat 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. Reshma had lost to Shruti rather tamely in the semifinals of the National juniors a fortnight earlier.
Reshma will face Sharmada Balu who overcame her doubles partner Sravya Shivani when the latter retired early in the third set.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Men: Niki Poonacha bt Faisal Qamar 6-4, 6-3; Prithvi Sekhar bt Jatin Dahiya 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Paras Dahiya bt Fardeen Qamar 6-1, 2-6, 6-2; Rishi Reddy bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-3, 7-6(3); S.D. Prajwal Dev bt V.M. Ranjeet 6-0, 6-4; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-1; Digivjay Pratap Singh bt Dalwinder Singh 7-6(4), 6-4; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-4, 7-6(2).
Women: Zeel Desai bt Shreya Tatavarthy 2-6, 6-3, 6-1; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-2, 6-2; Sai Samhitha bt Sudipta Kumar 6-2, 6-3; Vanshita Pathania bt Jagmeet Kaur 6-4, 6-3; Reshma Maruri bt Shruti Ahlawat 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
Sharmada Balu bt Sravya Shivani 5-7, 6-1, 2-0 (retd.); Akanksha Nitture bt Smriti Bhasin 6-4, 6-1; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Farhat Aleen Qamar 6-4, 6-1 .
