New Delhi, Oct 5 (PTI) Soha Sadiq caused the first big upset of the Fenesta Open by knocking out sixth seed Jennifer Luikham with a 6-4, 6-1 win, while Parth Aggarwal ousted seventh seed Madhwin Kamath 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 at the National Hard court championships, here Monday.
Gunning for his third title, top seed Manish Sureshkumar opened his campaign with a comfortable straight-sets win in men’s singles while women’s top seed Vaidehee Chaudhari was also off to a fluent start.
“I feel really good, I feel really positive. Jennifer is not an easy player to play against. She is very persistent and is a very good player. I am happy I won,” Soha said after her match.
“I was training just for this tournament and I just did everything (in the match) I practiced for. This is one of the biggest tournaments in India and this win is a good start for me,” she said.
Elsewhere in the men’s singles draw, third seed Nitin Sinha, sixth seed Maan Kesharwani and eighth seed Rohan Mehra all advanced to the second round.
Defending champion Sureshkumar needed just 61 minutes to defeat Prasad Ingale 6-1, 6-2, while Vaidehee, a two-time former champion dropped just one game in her win over Riya Sachdeva in 56 minutes.
“It was a good start. I just tried to be solid because it was the first match,” Sureshkumar said after his win.
“I tried to put as many balls on the court, get the rhythm. Today’s match was more of being solid and trying to force the opponent to make an error. I think I was serving really well today. Hopefully, I can continue the momentum to the upcoming rounds.”
Vaidehee won the first 11 games of her first-round match before her opponent got on the scoreboard.
“I played really well, I was 6-0, 5-0 up, I wanted to finish in love and love. But Riya played a good game and, it was 6-0, 6-1. Now I’m looking forward to my second-round match tomorrow,” she said.
In the women’s singles draw, second seed Shruti Ahlawat reached the second round with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Chevika Sama, while third seed Akanksha Nitture battled past Lakshmi Gowda 7-6, 7-6.
Suraj Prabodh, the top seed in the men’s qualifying draw, was one of eight players to come through qualifying and earn a place in the main draw. PTI APS APS ATK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.