Prashanth enters semis

Top seed to take on Saketh in last-four encounter

Prashanth got the better of Karnataka’s wild card entrant in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 in a quarterfinal match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.

Saketh Myneni of Andhra Pradesh, and the Tamil Nadu duo of Mohammed Fariz and Mohit Mayur completed the last-four line-up in the men’s section. Qualifier Saketh packed off seventh seed and State-mate SV Abhishek 6-1, 6-2 while Fariz, also a qualifier, outclassed another qualifier Vaidik Munshaw of Gujarat 6-2, 6-2.

Fifth seed Vijay Kannan of Tamil Nadu, who on Wednesday had narrowly escaped defeat after a gruelling three-setter in the pre-quarterfinals, suffered a shock exit, losing to unseeded team-mate Mohit 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-1 in the last-eight stage.

Prashanth will take on Saketh while Fariz faces Mayur in Friday’s semifinals.

Prashanth was bang on target right from the first game. The 24-year-old put pressure on Vinod and broke the teenager in the second and fourth games while holding his serve all the way to take a runaway 5-0 lead. Vinod somehow managed to hold serve in the sixth game but not before it went to deuce three times. But Vinod showed the glimpses of his potential in the seventh game with Prashanth leading 5-1 and serving for the set.

Vinod, who trains at the KSLTA, started to unleash an array of shots from his armoury, including a forehand top-spin pass as he broke his rival with a deep backhand return which Prashanth dumped into the net.

Though Vinod won the next game, Prashanth served well to pocket the first set 6-3. In the second set, Prashanth broke Vinod in the first, third and seventh games to emerge an easy winner.   

In the women’s section, qualifier Treta Bhattacharya of West Bengal packed off seventh seed Archana Venkatraman of Karnataka 6-4, 6-1 in the quarters.

Results (quarterfinals, prefix number denote seedings):

Men: 1-Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Vinod Gowda (Kar) 6-3, 6-1; Saketh Myneni (AP) bt 7-SV Abhishek (AP) 6-1, 6-2; Mohammed Fariz (TN) bt Vaidik Munshaw (Guj) 6-2, 6-2; Mohit Mayur (TN) bt 5-Vijay Kannan (TN) 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles: Vinod Gowda/ Sourabh Singh (Kar/ Dli) bt Irfan Hussain/ Vignesh V (TN) 6-2, 6-0; Mohammed Fariz/Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) bt Sanjib K/ Anshuman Dutta (WB) 6-0, 6-2; Kiran Nandakumar/ Ravikiran Bhat w/o Ajai Selvaraj/ Sukul Saurav (TN/WB).

Women: Treta Bhattacharya (WB) bt 7-Archana Venkatraman (Kar) 6-4, 6-1; 3-Sowjanya Bavishetti (AP) bt Abhilasha Ahuja (Har) 6-1, 6-3; 2-Zainab Ali Sajjad (AP) bt 5-Vaniya Dangwal (Dli) 6-0, 6-4; 4-Natasha Palha (Goa) bt Sonia Dayal (Mah) 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles: Sharmadha Balu/ Sheethal Goutham (Kar) w/o Preethi Srinivas/ Preethi Ujjani (TN/ Kar); Abhilasha Ahuja/ U Shalaka (Har/ Kar) bt Rajani Saadgi / Smriti Joon (Guj/ Har) 6-4, 6-4; Zainab Ali Sajjad/ Vania Dangwal (AP/ Dli) bt Sayali Bilare/ Amala Amol (Mah/Kar) 6-0, 6-1; Nova Patel/ Natasha Palha (Guj/ Goa) bt Treta Bhattacharya/ Sonia Dayal (WB/ Mah) 3-6, 7-5, 10-6.