Using his sharp serve and powerful forehands to good effect, Vinod hardly gave his rival a chance. The 16-year-old broke his opponent thrice in the first set — second, fourth and sixth games — to take the set in just 13 minutes.
Vinod continued his demolition job in the second set and raced to 4-0 lead. But Akshay put up some fight in the next game but he couldn’t press home the advantage, surrendering the game by hitting a backhand into the net. Vinod took the second set in 18 minutes.
Karnataka’s Prerana Pratap went down to second seed Zainab Ali Sajjad of Andhra Pradesh 2-6, 3-6 in a rain-hit first-round encounter in the women’s section. Zainab was leading 6-2, 3-0 when rain and wet court halted play for around 30 minutes but she kept her concentration going to progress to the next stage.
Among the State players making it to the second round were top seed Sheethal Goutham, seventh seed Archana Venkatraman and qualifier Liza Viplav. Sheethal eased past team-mate Sahan Shetty P 6-2, 6-3 to set up a clash with Treta Bhattacharyya of Bengal, who beat Likitha Shetty of Karnataka 7-6, 6-2. Archana got the better of another State player Preethi Ujjaini 6-4, 6-3 while Liza scored a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win over team-mate Amala Amol Warrick.
Results (first round, prefix number denote seedings):
Men: Vinod Gowda (Kar) bt Akshay Kishore (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Saketh M (AP) bt Veera Vasanth (Kar) 6-2, 6-0; 1-Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Arpit Sharma (Raj) 6-0, 6-2; Sai Saran Reddy (AP) bt Sagar Manjanna (Kar) 4-6, 6-0, 6-2; Vignesh V (TN) bt Sourab Patil (Mah) 6-4, 6-4; Saketh Myneni (AP) bt Veera Vasanth (Kar) 6-3, 6-2.
Women: 1-Sheethal Goutham (Kar) bt Sahan Shetty P (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; Treta Bhattacharyya (WB) bt Likitha Shetty (Kar) 7-6, 6-2; Nova Patel (Guj) bt Shalaka UM (Kar) 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-2; 7-Archana Venkataraman (Kar) 6-4, 6-3; 3-Sowjanya Bavishetti (AP) bt Nikita Vias Deshmukh Rao (Guj) 6-1, 6-1; Vijayalakshmi R (TN) bt Shruthi Architaa (Mah) 7-5, 6-4; Sonia Dayal (Mah) bt Rajni Saadgi (Guj) 6-0, 6-1; Liza Viplav (Kar) bt Amala Amol Warrick (Kar) 6-1, 6-2; Natalia Khaniejo (Mah) bt 8-Smriti Joon (Har) 7-5, 7-6 (5); Preethi Srinivasan (TN) bt Sagarika Phadke (Mah) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; 4-Natasha Palha (Goa) bt Victoria Chahal (Har) 6-3, 6-1; 5-Vaniya Tangwal (Dli) bt Prarthana Pratap (Kar) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; Sayali Bhilare (Mah) bt Taneesha Rohira (Kar) 6-1, 6-3; Disha Saigal (Dli) bt Rachitha Sarda (Kar) 6-2, 6-4; 2-Zainab Ali Sajjad (AP) bt Prerana Pratap (Kar) 6-2, 6-3; 6-Abhilasha Ahuja (Har) bt Arthi Venkatraman 6-2, 6-1.
