Niki Poonacha, Paras Dahiya advance in Fenesta Open National Championships

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Top seed and former champion Niki Poonacha took some time to get his rhythm before beating Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta while Paras Dahiya edged out Karan Singh at the Fenesta Open national tennis championships here on Tuesday.

The tall Poonacha beat Reddy 6-4 6-3 in his men’s singles opener while fourth seed Dahiya had to work hard to defeat Karan Singh 6-2 7-5 at the DLTA Complex. “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,” said Poonacha.

“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,” said Niki. Dahiya was also pleased with his performance.

“I’m really grateful to come back here. Today’s match was really good. The first set was good for me. In the second set, I started a bit slow, but somehow I managed and this is a good win for me to boost my confidence,” he said.

Third seed Nitin Kumar Sinha had an easy day in office with a 6-1 6-1 win over Neeraj Yashpaul. “I played good and let me see how it goes on Wednesday. I love playing in the Fenesta Open,” said Nitin. In the women’s singles, Vanshita Pathania knocked 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 seed Vaidehi Chaudhari outplayed Niyati Kukreti 6-3, 6-0 and third seed Sravanya Shivani Chilakalapudi Srinidhi S 6-3 7-5.

Qualifier Sharmada Balu had it easy as her opponent Rishika Sunkara conceded the match at 6-0, 1-0.

Results:

Men’s singles: (First Round) Paras Dahiya (seeded 4) bt Karan Singh 6-2,7-5; Abhinav S Sanjeev (seeded 5) bt Chandril Sood 6-1,6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha (seeded 3) bt Neeraj Yashpaul 6-1,6-1; Niki K Poonacha (seeded 1) 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 Ishaque Eqbal (seeded 2) 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); Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi (seeded 3) bt Srinidhi S 6-3, 7-5; Sharmada Balu bt Rishika Sunkara 6-0,1-0 (Ret.); Vaidehi C Chaudhari (seeded 2) bt Niyati Kukreti 6-3,6-0; Smriti Bhasin bt Mihika Yadav (seeded 6) 7-6(1), 5-7, 6-4; Vanshita Pathania bt Prerna Bhambri (seeded 8) 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 Anvit Bendre/ Parikshit Somnani (seeded 4) 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.