Sagar scored a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win over State-mate Vishwanath Savadi in the first round. Archana also had an easy outing, routing Parman Johar of Gujarat 6-0, 6-1 in the women’s singles first round match.
Another State player Krutika S Raj progressed when her team-mate Vidya Bharath conceded the tie in the second set. Krutika was leading 6-7 (1), 4-1 when her opponent retired.
Hosts’ players Vishnu Jinan, Veera Vasanth and Kamal Suresh Kumar bit the dust in the men’s section while Shalaka Manjunath failed to go past the women’s singles first round.
While the State players went through a day of mixed luck, men’s top seed Vijay Sundar Prashanth of Tamil Nadu posted a clinical 6-0, 6-0 win over Uttar Pradesh’s Srivastava while TN’s Mithun Murali, seeded second, registered an 6-4, 6-4 victory over Haryana’s Bharat Bharadwaj.
Results (first round, prefix denotes seeding): Men: 1-Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Srivastava Abhilash (UP) 6-0, 6-0; Sagar Manjanna (Kar) bt Vishwanath Savadi (Kar) 6-4, 6-3; Elwin Antony (TN) bt Murtaza Lohani (TN) 6-4, 6-2; 8-Chandril Sood (UP) bt Bharath Parthasarthy (TN) 6-1, 6-2; Vijay Kannan (TN) bt Adit Jain (Del) 6-2, 6-3; 7-Vinod Sridhar (TN) bt Amod Wakalkar (Mah) 6-0, 6-3; Aaditya Tewari (MP) bt Vishnu Jinan (Kar) 6-3, 6-4; Neeraj Elangovan (TN) bt Veera Vasanth (Kar) 6-3, 6-2; 4-Kunal Anand (Del) bt Sagar Ahuja (Mah) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; 6-Shahbaaz Khan (Mah) bt Kamal Suresh Kumar (Kar) 6-3, 6-4; Bestha Vishnu Arvind (AP) bt Rohit Sarwate (Mah) 6-4, 6-2; 2-Mithun Murali (TN) bt Bharat Bharadwaj (Har) 6-4, 6-4.
Women: Sowjanya Bavisetti (AP) bt Surya Tejaswini (AP) 6-0, 6-0; Sharon Paul (TN) bt 3-Zainab Ali Sajjad (AP) 6-3, 6-2; Sowmya Pulumati (AP) bt M Arthi (TN) 6-1, 6-3; Seeulee Upadhyaya (Ori) bt Shalaka Manjunath (Kar) 7-5, 6-3; Krutika S Raj (Kar) bt Vidya Bharath (Kar) 6-7(1), 4-1 (retired); Archana Venkatraman (Kar) bt Parman Johar (Guj) 6-0, 6-1.