Former champion Vishnu Vardhan battled for three hours and 25 minutes and converted his fifth match point to stop the resurgent Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 in the men’s first round of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.
In a high-quality contest, Vishnu asserted his strong game and admirable fitness to walk away with the victory.
Another former champion, the wiry left-hander Siddharth Vishwakarma, played a delightful all-court game, whipping his serves and strokes with a relish to silence the power game of Rishi Reddy.
Top seed S.D. Prajwal Dev withdrew following a groin muscle pull during training, and lucky-loser Sai Karteek Reddy capitalised on the chance to get past qualifier Faisal Qamar in straight sets.
The results (first round):
Men: Sai Karteek Reddy bt Faisal Qamar 7-5, 7-5; Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Ajay Malik 6-0, 6-2; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Rishi Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Suraj Prabodh bt Neeraj Yashpaul 6-3, 6-0; V.M. Ranjeet bt Yash Chaurasia 6-0, 6-3; Sheikh Md. Iftikhar bt Dheeraj Srinivasan 6-3, 7-5; Vishnu Vardhan bt Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5; Kabir Hans bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-4, 6-4.
Women: Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Saily Thakkar 6-2, 6-0; Sai Janvi bt Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-1, 2-6, 6-1; Kashish Bhatia bt Pooja Ingale 6-3, 6-4; Avishka Gupta bt Ishwari Matere 6-3, 2-6, 6-2; Riya Sachdeva bt Shruti Gupta 6-2, 6-3; Sai Samhitha bt Kavya Khirwar 6-1, 1-6, 6-3; Vanshika Choudhary bt HImaanshika Singh 3-6, 7-6(4), 3-0 (retired).
