Nikki Poonacha, Vanshita off to good start in tennis nationals

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New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) Men's top seed Nikki Poonacha and unseeded woman player Vanshita Pathania warmed up for tougher battles ahead by scoring contrasting victories in the first round of the Fenesta Open national tennis championships here on Tuesday.

Poonacha started his campaign in style as he defeated Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta 6-4, 6-3 in the first round on Tuesday. Poonacha took time to find his range of shots at the DLTA complex on Tuesday. However, once he had his eye in, there was no trouble in defeating Sai Karteek.

"It was a good game overall for me. It was close at 4-3 but I think I played good tennis. I just came from Tunisia, so I'm getting used to the conditions here. It was a good win and a good day. So far my experience with the Fenesta Open has been great. Delhi is my favourite place to play and I have won a few big tournaments here," Poonacha was quoted as saying in a release on Tuesday.

Joining him as a prominent leader was fourth seed Paras Dahiya. Dahiya, who was stretched in the second set but emerged a 6-2, 7-5 winner against Karan Singh.

Siddharth Vishwakarma caused a big upset by beating second seed Ishaque Eqbal 6-1, 6-3 while third seed Nitin Kumar Sinha routed Neeraj Yashpaul 6-1, 6-1 to make it to the second round easily.

In the women's section, Vanshita Pathania opened her campaign by beating eighth seed Prerna Bambri 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

"It was a really long match and I injured myself, I just made things a little difficult for myself in the beginning but I just tried not to put my focus on the injury and tried to play it out. It was a good match overall and she played well," Said Vanshita.

Shruti Ahlawat won 6-0, 6-2 against Pooja Ingale while Farhat Aleen Qamar crushed Shefali Arora 6-2, 6-0. Second see Vaidehi Chaudhari was in sublime form as she outplayed Niyati Kukreti 6-3, 6-0 while third seed Sravanya Shivani Chilakalapudi was happy with her result as well as she won 6-3, 7-5 against Srinidhi S.

Important results:

Men's singles (first round): 4-Paras Dahiya bt Karan Singh 6-2,7-5; 5-Abhinav S Sanjeev bt Chandril Sood 6-1, 6-3; 3-Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Neeraj Yashpaul 6-1, 6-1; 1-Nikki K Poonacha bt Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta 6-4, 6-3; Jatin Dahiya bt Parikshit Somani 6-1, 6-2; Faisal Qamar bt Vivek Gautam 6-2,6-3; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt 2-Ishaque Eqbal 6-1,6-3; Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Boopathy Sakthivel 6-4,6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-4, 6-3.

Women's singles (first round): Farhat Aleen Qamar bt Shefali Arora 6-2, 6-0; Shruti Ahlawat bt Pooja Ingale 6-0, 6-2; Sudipta Senthil Kumar bt Priyanshi Sankesh Bhandari 6-3, 7-6(1); 3-Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi bt Srinidhi S 6-3, 7-5; Sharmada Balu bt Rishika Sunkara 6-0,1-0 (Ret.); 2-Vaidehi C Chaudhari bt Niyati Kukreti 6-3, 6-0; Smriti Bhasin bt 6-Mihika Yadav 7-6(1), 5-7, 6-4; Vanshita Pathania bt 8-Prerna Bhambri 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Men's doubles (first round): Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta/ Madhwin Kamath bt Chinmaya Dev Chauhan/ Abhishek Gaur 6-1, 6-1; Hemant Kaur/Himanshu Mor bt Raghav Jaisinghani/ Neeraj Yashpaul 6-3, 6-3; Paras Dahiya/ Ishaque Eqbal bt 4-Anvit Bendre/ Parikshit Somnani 4-6, 6-3,10-8; Kunal Anand/ Lakshay Gupta bt Jatin Dahiya/ Dalwinder Singh 6-3, 6-4; Chandril Sood/ Lakshit Sood bt Lohith Aksha Bathrinath/ Prithvi Sekar 6-4, 6-4.

--IANS

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