National Tennis C'ship: Maaya causes upset; Manish makes strong start in Fenesta Open

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Maaya Revathi produced a scintillating performance to upset fouth-seeded Lakshmi Arunkumar Prabh 6-1, 6-1 in straight sets in the first round of the ongoing 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday. The 15-year-old from Tamil Nadu lost the first game of the opening set but soon came to her groove and used her swift movement and sublime net play to break Lakshmi's serve. She continued her momentum, winning the next five games in a row to clinch the first set.

Maaya, who holds the record for the longest ITF Juniors winning streak, looked even better in the second set, breaking her opponent's serve in the first game and quickly taking a 2-0 lead. Laxmi pushed to make a comeback after claiming the third game but the winner of five ITF Juniors singles titles and three ITF Juniors doubles titles did not lose the momentum and notched up a fine victory to move into the next round of the tournament.

India’s largest domestic tennis tournament, a leading business conglomerate, under the aegis of All-India Tennis Association and Delhi Lawn Tennis Association, will witness the participation of exciting talents from various parts of the country fighting for the coveted crowns. The tournament has seen the participation of some of India’s top tennis stars in the past editions including Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Sania Mirza, and Rutuja Bhosale among many others.

Meanwhile, second-seed Manish Sureshkumar of Tamil Nadu also made a fine start to the tournament in the men's singles category and defeated Jagmeet Singh of Haryana to reach the second round.

The first set saw a see-saw battle and went into a tie-breaker where the former champion reigned supreme with a powerful forehand from the baseline and won it by 7-6(4) before clinching the following set 6-0 without losing a game.

In other men's singles first-round matches, Telangana's Theertha Shashank defeated Shivank Bhatnagar of Delhi 6-4, 6-2, while Manipur's Bhusan Haobam beat Suraj R. Prabodh of Karnataka 6-1, 7-5 in straight sets.

Meanwhile, Pooja Inghale of Maharashtra got the better of Telangana's Nirali Padaniya 6-3, 6-1 in the women's singles category. Seventh seed Maharashtra's Sejal Bhutada defeated Vidhi Jani or Gujarat 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 in a three-set thriller.

Besides the prestigious titles, the tournament has a total prize pool of over Rs 21.55 lakh and a Kit Allowance in the junior categories up for grabs. The winners and runners-up in the U16 and U14 singles events will also receive a Tennis scholarship of ₹25,000 each.

The Boys and Girls Under-16 & Under-14 category qualifying and main draw matches will be played from October 5 to October 12.

--IANS

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