Nikshep eases into round two

Sukul shock for fancied Shaikh; Pragati advances

Local lad BR Nikshep eased past the challenge of Sagar Manjanna 6-4, 6-4 in the men’s singles first round of the DS Max AITA prize-money tennis tournament here at the KSLTA Stadium.

A wildcard at the event, Nikshep, who is coming into this tournament on the back of some solid performances, broke Manjanna in the seventh game of the first-set to clinch it 6-4 before breaking his opponent’s serve in the very first game of the second to take the set also by an identical scoreline.

The day’s big upset saw the men’s third seed Saurav Sukul packed off by Shaikh Abdullah 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 in the first round itself.

In the women’s section, Pragati Nataraj of Tamil Nadu and Adnya Naik entered the quarterfinals. Pragati beat Varunya Chandrashekar 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-3 to advance, while Adnya Malik, who accounted for the top seed Manya Nagpal on Tuesday, maintained her form to power past Moulika Ram 6-1, 6-4.

In another women’s pre-quarterfinal match, Asha Nandakumar, who came out of retirement, advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Damini Sharma.



Results: Men’s singles (pre-quarterfinals): Nitten Kirrtane bt Manu Bajpai 6-1, 6-4.
First round: Manu Bajpai bt Irfan Hussain 6-3, 6-3; Vinod Sridhar bt Saurabh Patil 6-2, 6-2; BR Nikshep bt Sagar Manjanna 6-4, 6-4; Lakshit Sood bt Prajwal Dev 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Vijay Kannan bt Sagar Ahuja 6-3, 7-5; Ramesh Vigneshwaran bt Taha Kapadia 6-3, 6-2; Rishabdev Raman bt S Prithvi  6-3, 2-6, 6-1; Shaikh Abudllah bt Saurav Sukul 7-6 (7-3), 7-5; Suraj R Prabodh bt Kumara P Saradhi 6-1, 6-3; Rishab Agarwal bt CD Ajay 6-1, 6-1; V Veerabhadran bt Arpit Sharma 6-0, 6-4; Mohit Mayur bt L Balaji 6-1, 7-6 (7-1).

Women’s singles (pre-quarterfinals): Pragati Nataraj bt Varunya Chandrashekar 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-3;  Adnya Naik bt Moulika Ram 6-1, 6-4; Nithyaraj Baburaj bt  Arushi Bhasun 6-7 (9-11), 6-3, 6-4;  Smriti Joon bt Likita Shetty 6-3, 6-4; Riya Bhatia bt Amala Amol Warrick 6-0, 6-3; Asha Nandakumar bt Damini Sharma 6-2, 6-3; Amrita Mukherji bt Preeti Ujjini 6-3, 6-0; Sai Samhita bt Arantxa Andrady 6-4, 6-2.