Top seed Zeel has it easy

Women's top seed Zeel Desai brushed aside the challenge of Harshita Chugh without fuss but men's top seed Suraj Prabodh faced stiff resistance before prevailing over Ansu Kumar Bhuyan on the opening day of the Fenesta National Tennis championship, here on Monday.

Zeel dispatched Harshita 6-2, 6-0 in a lop-sided women's singles first round but Prabodh had to dig deep into his reserves to beat Bhuyan 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 in his men's singles first round.

The seeded players in the men's singles draw had a tough time as fifth seed Prajwal S D Dev was ousted by Manish Sureshkumar 6-3, 6-4. On court number six, eighth seed Faisal Qamar managed to subdue talented Dhakshineshwar Suresh 7-6(3), 6-4 to make it to the second round.

Dhakshineshwar, who won the Under-16 championhsip last year, gifted away easy points and also struggled to contain his unforced errors.

Faisal's younger brother Fardeen Qumar advanced to the second round of the Under-18 Boys singles event with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Deepak Senthil Kumar.

Faisal's other sibling, 14-year-old sister Farhat Aleen Qamar, was crusing when she won the first set without losing a single game but a stomach bug let her down and she lost 6-0, 0-6, 4-6 to Vidula Reddy.

Meanwhile, in the battle of veterans, 43-year-old Nitin Kirrtane defeated Vijay Kannan 6-3 3-6 7-5 in his opening round.

Results: Men's Singles: Kunal Anand bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-2; Dalwinder Singh bt Paras Dahiya 0-6, 6-2, 6-4; Faisal Qamar bt Dakshineshwar Suresh 7-6 (3), 6-4; Jayesh Pungliya bt Digvijay Singh Mehta 6-3, 6-2; Manish Sureshkumar bt Prajwal D Dev 6-3, 6-4.

Women's Singles: Zeel Desai bt Harshita Chugh 6-2, 6-0; Shreya Gulia bt Prakriti Banwani 6-3, 6-2; Shweta Rana bt Sindhu Janagam 6-3, 6-3; Bhuvana Kalva bt Shruti Gupta 6-1, 6-0; Yubrani Banerjee bt Smriti Singh 6-1,6-1.