Vignesh stuns Sourav

Unseeded Vignesh Veerabhadran stunned top seed Sourav Sukul 6-2, 6-4 in the opening round of the men’s singles in the AITA Pro Circuit Championships at the KSLTA Stadium here on Tuesday.

In other matches, third seed Nitin Kirtane eased past Suraj Kanwar 6-1, 6-3 while former Davis Cupper and seventh seed Vijay Kannan outplayed Saurabh Patil 6-1, 6-3.

Lakshit Sood gave a tough fight to fourth seed Vaidik Munshaw, before going down 2-6, 6-3, 3-6.

In the women’s singles, top seed, Eetee Mehta drubbed local lass Shalaka Uddur 6-4, 6-1.
Two other Karnataka players, Preethi Ujjini and  Rachita Sarda, also failed to clear the first hurdle.

Results (first round): Men: Vignesh Veerabhadran bt Sourav Sukul 6-2, 6-4; Vijay Kannan bt Saurabh Patil 6-1, 6-3; Yogesh Phogat bt Rajat Maheshwar 6-1, 6-1; Tushar Mandlekar bt Arpit Sharma 7-5, 6-1; Vaidik Munshaw bt Lakshit Sood 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane bt Suraj Kanwar 6-1, 6-3; Shahbaz Khan bt Sai Saran Reddy 6-2, 6-3; Vinod Sridhar bt Brahmajith Singh 6-1, 6-2.

Women: Damini Sharma bt Preethi Ujjini 6-3, 6-2; Nithyraj Baburaj bt Joushini Tuli 6-1, 6-1; Eetee Mehta bt Shalaka Uddur 6-4, 6-1; Zainab Ali Sajjad bt Sanya Madan 6-3, 6-1; Sahan Shetty bt Sagarike Phadke 6-4, 6-2; Niku Amin bt Rachita Sarda 6-4, 6-2.