Fenesta Open: Top seeds Manish Sureshkumar, Vaidehee Chaudhari kick off campaigns with straight-sets wins

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Top seeds in the men’s and women’s singles draws, Manish Sureshkumar and Vaidehee Chaudhari, kicked off their respective campaigns with comfortable straight-sets wins on the opening day of the 31st Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Monday.

Sureshkumar, the defending champion, needed just 61 minutes to defeat Prasad Ingale 6-1, 6-2, while Chaudhari, a two-time former champion who missed last year’s edition due to injury, dropped just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 win over Riya Sachdeva in 56 minutes.

“It was a good start. I just tried to be solid because it was the first match,” Sureshkumar said after his win. “I tried to put as many balls on the court and get the rhythm. Today’s match was more about being solid and trying to force the opponent to make an error. I think I was serving really well today. Hopefully, I can continue the momentum to the upcoming rounds.”

Gunning for his third Fenesta Open title, Sureshkumar is feeling confident playing at what he described as one of his favourite venues. “I have won this tournament twice already. Last year was pretty good. I didn’t start pretty well last year, but I was able to end it well. I have always liked playing on these courts in Delhi. This is one of my favourite venues. I feel confident playing here, and that’s what I will be looking forward to,” the 27-year-old from Tamil Nadu added.

Chaudhari won the first 11 games of her first-round match before her opponent got on the scoreboard. “I played really well; I was 6-0, 5-0 up. I wanted to finish in love and love,” she told the media after the win. “But Riya played a good game, and it was 6-0, 6-1. Now I’m looking forward to my second-round match tomorrow.”

Like Sureshkumar, Chaudhari also has fond memories of the tournament and is hoping to create some more this year. “This place is very special for me. I won my first title in 2022 and the second one in 2024. And whenever I come here, I always go back with the trophy. I feel really good, and hopefully I create some more good memories here this year,” she added.

Meanwhile, Soha Sadiq caused the first big upset of the tournament with a 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 6 seed Jennifer Luikham in 86 minutes. “I feel really good, I feel really positive,” Sadiq said after her win. “Jennifer is not an easy player to play against. She is very persistent and is a very good player. I am happy I won.”

The 28-year-old had been training hard in preparation for the event and was happy to see her work pay off on court on Monday. “I was training just for this tournament, and I just did everything (in the match) I practised for. This is one of the biggest tournaments in India, and this win is a good start for me,” she said.

Elsewhere in the men’s singles draw, third seed Nitin Sinha, sixth seed Maan Kesharwani and eighth seed Rohan Mehra all advanced to the second round. However, No. 7 seed Madhwin Kamath was knocked out by Parth Aggarwal in three sets.

In the women’s singles draw, second seed Shruti Ahlawat reached the second round with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Chevika Sama, while third seed Akanksha Nitture battled past Lakshmi Gowda 7-6, 7-6.

Suraj Prabodh, the top seed in the men’s qualifying draw, was one of eight players to come through qualifying and earn a place in the main draw. Others included 35-year-old veteran Lakshit Sood and rising juniors Aditya Mor and Prakaash Sarran, who are both among the seeded players in the Boys Under-18 singles draw, which also commenced on Monday.

In the Boys Under-18 singles draw, top seed Praneel Sharma was impressive as he defeated Ritvik Dutt 6-0, 6-0 in less than an hour. Fourth seed Om Ramesh Patel, seventh seed Parjanya Adury and No. 8 seed Kushagra Arora also won their first-round matches in straight sets.

The Girls’ Under-18 singles draw also got underway on Monday. The top 16 seeds received a bye into the second round. They were joined by first-round winners Riddhi Shinde, Paavani Bisht, Pooja Nagaraj and Sanidya Karantoth, among others.

Results at the time of writing this report:

Men’s Singles First Round (Round of 32): Manish Sureshkumar [1] (TN) def. Prasad Ingale (MH) 6-1, 6-2; Nitin Sinha [3] (WB) def. K Suresh (TN) 6-2, 6-2; Maan Kesharwani [6] (UP) def. Vansh Bisht (DL) 6-4, 6-4; Parth Aggarwal (DL) def. Madhwin Kamath [7] (GJ) 7-5, 1-6, 6-2; Rohan Mehra [8] (DL) def. A Senthilkumar (TN) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2; Pranav Karthik (TN) def. Suhith Lanka (TG) 6-4, 6-4; Debasis Sahoo (OD) def. Irfan Husain (TN) 7-5, 7-6

Women’s Singles First Round (Round of 32) Results

Vaidehi Chaudhari [1] def. Riya Sachdeva 6-0, 6-1

Shruti Ahlawat [2] def. Chevika Sama 6-4, 6-0

Akanksha Nitture [3] def. Lakshmi Gowda 7-6, 7-6

Soha Sadiq def. Jennifer Luikham [6] 6-4, 6-1

Akansha Ghosh def. Divya Bhardwaj 6-4, 6-2

Saily Thakkar def. Pooja Ingale 6-3, 6-3

Yubrani Banerjee def. Hasini Davunaboina 6-1, 6-0

Boys U18 First Round (Round of 64) Results

Praneel Sharma [1] def. Ritvik Dutt 6-0, 6-0

Om Ramesh Patel [4] def. Gyansh Manchanda 6-2, 6-0

Parjanya Adury [7] def. Gaurish Madaan 6-0, 6-4

Kushagra Arora [8] def. Aritra Sasmal 6-3, 6-0

Sharan Somasi [11] def. Chandra Kopparapu 6-1, 6-3

Veer Jiten Madam def. Yaj Malik [14] 6-1, 6-1

Yashwin Dahiya [15] def. Ryan Mehta 6-2, 6-0

Lakshya Chukka [16] def. Lakshay Drall 6-0, 6-2

C Yale def. Rehaan Theodore 6-4, 6-4

Sarthak Gaikwad def. Ahaan Khanna 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

Tejas Ravi def. Nithik Sivakumar 6-3, 6-4

Anay Pandey def. Raunak Gilra 6-2, 7-5

Sangram Bhadury def. Harsh Nandal 6-2, 6-1

Mehul Jothish def. Ashwin Kabilan 7-5, 6-3

Aryaveer Sharma def. Gurrshan Mehta 6-1, 7-5

Rishi Yadav def. Arnav Bhuyan 6-3, 6-2

Srikar Doni def. Aksh Jood 6-1, 6-3

Girls U18 First Round (Round of 64) Results

Riddhi Shinde def. Zoha Qureshi 6-2, 6-1

Paavani Bisht def. Ruhin Kaushal 6-2, 6-0

Pooja Nagaraj def. Vrandika Raput 6-1, 6-3

Sanidya Karantoth def. Mahi Raulji 6-0, 6-3

Mehul Malik def. Dyuti Jain 7-5, 6-1

Anjhalle Meka def. Aafreen Rahil 6-0, 6-4

Diya Chaudhary def. Vani Bansal 6-1, 6-0

Aniha Gavinolla def. Sanmitha Harini 4-6, 6-1, 6-3

Harsha Oruganti def. Sherry Sharma 6-1, 6-2

Tejaswi Manneni def. Chanchal Malik 6-1, 6-0

Iha Joshi def. Aarnavi Tomar 6-1, 6-0

Miraya Agrawal def. Mehr Muralidass 6-1, 6-0

Manvi Gupta def. Anarva Shyamraj 6-1, 6-0

Thatiparthy Hemaza def. Rathi Manvi 6-1, 6-3

–IANS

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