Siddharth Vishwakarma unleashed vicious serves and strokes to outwit second seed Manish Sureshkumar 6-4, 7-6(4) in the men’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
It was a morale boosting win for the 1,221st ranked Siddharth against the 565th ranked Manish, who has been faring well in the international circuit. In fact, the 19-year-old Manish had defeated Siddharth in the third set tie-breaker in their only meeting in the professional circuit earlier this year in the Futures in Chandigarh.
Manish led 4-2, but was unable to sustain the tempo against the free-stroking left-hander. In the second set, Siddharth handled the tie-break well to pull through.
Nitin through
In the semifinals, Siddharth will challenge Asian junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha, who outplayed Siddhant Banthia for the loss of four games.
Top seed Arjun Kadhe set up a semifinal against Sidharth Rawat after outwitting Ishaque Eqbal for the loss of three games. Third seeded Sidharth overcame national champion V.M. Ranjeet 7-5, 6-0, as he hastened to the finish by winning the last nine games.
In the women’s section, Natasha Palha pulled off another impressive victory, battling past sixth seed Ramya Natarajan 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2). It was credit to Ramya that she recovered from being down 2-6, 2-5 and saved a match point in the tenth game of the second set to push the contest to the wire.
Handling it well
Sathwika Sama was expected to put up a better fight, but Zeel Desai handled her challenge with composure to win 6-3, 6-3.
Four-time National champion at the same venue, Prerna Bhmabri set up a semifinal against defending champion and second seed Mahak Jain by defeating Humera Shaik, who failed to drive home the advantage when she had the chance in the first set.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men: Arjun Kadhe bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-0, 6-3; Sidharth Rawat bt V.M. Ranjeet 7-5, 6-0; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Siddhant Banthia 6-2, 6-2; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-4, 7-6(4).
Women: Zeel Desai bt Sathwika Sama 6-3, 6-3; Natasha Palha bt Ramya Natarajan 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2); Prerna Bhambri bt Humera Shaik 7-5, 6-1; Mahak Jain bt Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-2, 6-4.
U-18, boys: Siddhant Banthia bt Krish Patel 6-0, 6-3; Madhwin Kamath bt Dhruv Tangri 6-4, 6-3; Calvin Golmei bt Kabir Hans 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5; Drona Walia bt Ajay Malik 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-3.
Girls: Humera Shaik bt Farhat Aleen Qamar 6-0, 6-1; Sara Yadav bt Ishita Singh 6-2, 7-5; Rashmikaa Shrivalli Bamidipaty bt Sarah Dev 2-6, 6-3, 6-3; Sharannya Gaware bt Kashish Bhatia 6-1, 6-3.
