Kirrtane marches into semis

Nikshep bows to Sood; Mayur sails through

Maharashtra’s Nitten Kirrtane registered a hard-fought 7-5, 7-5 victory over Vinod Sridhar to enter the men’s singles semifinals of the DS Max AITA prize-money tennis tournament at the KSLTA stadium on Thursday.

In the semifinals, Kirrtane will clash with fourth seed Chandril Sood of Uttar Pradesh, who beat his brother and fifth seed Lakshit Sood 6-4, 7-5.

Earlier, the Karnataka challenge in the men’s section ended when Chandril Sood defeated BR Nikshep 6-3, 6-0 and Suraj Prabodh retired after trailing 0-6, 5-5 against Rishab Agarwal in the pre-quarters.

In the other semifinal, second seed Mohit Mayur of Tamil Nadu will lock horns with qualifier Rishabdev Raman.

Mayur got the better of Rishab Agarwal 6-3, 6-2 while Rishabdev emerged victor after Vijay Kannan cramped out after losing the first set 5-7.

In the women’s section, Maharashtra’s Adnya Naik eased into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win against Pragati Nataraj of Tamil Nadu while Andhra Pradesh’s Sai Samhita eked out a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Amrita Mukherjee.

Qualifier Riya Bhatia ended the winning run of Karnataka’s Asha Nandakumar, beating her 6-3, 6-3 to make it to the semifinals while Smriti Joon of Haryana recorded a superb come-from-behind 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 win over Nithyaraj Baburaj.


Results: Men’s singles: Quarterfinals: Nitten Kirrtane bt Vinod Sridhar 7-5, 7-5; Chandril Sood bt Lakshit Sood 6-4, 6-3; Rishabdev Raman bt Vijay Kannan 7-5 retd; Mohit Mayur bt Rishab Agarwal 6-3, 6-2.

Pre-quarterfinals: Nitten K bt Manu Bajpai 6-1, 6-4; Vinod S bt Saurabh Singh 6-1, 6-2; Chandril S bt BR Nikshep 6-3, 6-0; Lakshit S bt Fariz Mohammed 6-3, 6-0; Vijay K bt Ramesh Vigneshwaran 6-1, 1-6, 6-3; Rishabdev R bt Shaikh Abdullah 6-0, 3-6, 6-1; Rishab A bt Suraj Prabodh 6-0, 5-5 retd; Mohit M bt Vignesh Veerabhadran 6-2, 6-3.

Women’s singles: (Quarterfinals): Adnya Naik bt Pragati Nataraj 6-4, 6-1; Smriti Joon bt Nithyaraj Baburaj  5-7, 6-2, 6-1; Riya Bhatia bt Asha Nandakumar 6-3, 6-3; Sai Samhita bt Amrita Mukherjee 6-3, 6-4.