Tennis Nationals: Seeded players through to second round

New Delhi: Third seed Siddharth Rawat from Uttar Pradesh had to dig deep into his reserves before outsmarting Kaza V. Sharma from Andhra Pradesh 6-4, 7-5 in the men’s singles first round of the Fenesta Open national tennis championship here on Tuesday.

After a shaky start Siddharth used his cool temperament to advance into the second round.

Former champion V.M. Ranjeet showed he still has gas left in him as he moved past Prithvi S. in straight sets on a warm and sunny day at the DLTA complex.

Former national champion Mohit Mayur beat last year’s U-16 national champion Dakshineshwar Suresh 6-3,6-2. Sixth seed Ramya Natrajan after moving from qualifying draw into the main draw beat state mate Prathyusha Rachap of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 6-1 while Muskan Gupta from Delhi ousted Mihika Yadav 6-3,6-1.

Fifth seed Humera Shaik survived scare before she overcome unseeded Pratibha P. Narayan 7-6 (6), 0-6, 6-3.

Delhi girl Shweta Rana beat Ayushi Tanwar from Rajasthan 6-1, 6-4 to advanve into second round.

In the under-18 boys section, top seed Siddhant Bhantia defeated Delhi’s Rohan Mehra 6-2, 6-3 in the second round. “To play against last year’s runner-up was not easy. I came into the match with self-belief,” said Siddhant.

In the Girls U-18, Humera had an easy win against Chavvi Rathi 6-1,6-0.