Aryan Goveas battles past Suraj Prabodh in National tennis

Second seed Aryan Goveas had to fight his way past Suraj Prabodh for a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory in the men’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

The strongly built Aryan, slowly getting into his rhythm, was able to play with intensity at the crunch to shut the escape routes for the sweet-stroking Suraj, who had made the final two years ago.

The 20-year-old Aryan was on top of his game in the first set, but Suraj fought back in the second to stay on par. Aryan did have a chance to close the match in the second set tie-break as he led 4-2 but erred thereafter.

In the decider, Aryan served big and unleashed strong strokes to pull through without much drama.

In the semifinals, Aryan will play Kunal Anand who got past the former Asian junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha in the second set tie-break.

Kunal did feel a bout of nerves as he missed two match points at 6-3 in the tie-break but stroked clean to emerge victorious.

Kunal does have a 2-0 win-loss record against Aryan in the international professional circuit, but it should be an even battle.

The other semifinal will feature top seed Niki Poonacha and the former national champion Dalwinder Singh.

The long-time trainee of Harvest Academy in Jassowal, Ludhiana, the atheltic Dalwinder was quite sharp and explosive in overcoming the strong challenge from Ishaque Eqbal, who failed to capitalise on a 5-3 lead in the second set.

Niki, in contrast, had a relative smooth sailing against SD Prajwal Dev who has been commendable in handling the tough conditions and many matches.

In the women’s section, Jagmeet Kaur, who is regularly trained by Ankita Bhambri, was quite composed and played a fluent game in beating the second seed Bhuvana Kalva in straight sets.

Jagmeet will challenge the four-time national champion Prerna Bhambri in the semifinals. The other semifinal will be between top seed Sowjanya Bavisetti who saw off the challenge from Salsa Aher, and the favourite Vaidehi Chaudhari.

Trained by coach Jignesh Raval at the Altevol Waske Tennis Academy in Ahmedabad, Vaidehi has dropped only five games in all to her three opponents so far.

In men’s doubles, Suresh Dhakshineswar and Parikshit Somani who had beaten the top seeds Jeevan Nedunchehziyan and Vishnu Vardhan in the quarterfinals, were ousted by Ishaque Eqbal and Mohit Mayur 10-7 in the super tie-break.

The results:
Men (quarterfinals): Niki Poonacha bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-4, 6-3; Dalwinder Singh bt Ishaque Eqbal 7-6(4), 7-5; Kunal Anand bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 7-6(5); Aryan Goveas bt Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Ishaque Eqbal & Mohit Mayur bt Suresh Dhakshineswar & Parikshit Somani 6-4, 2-6, [10-7]; Niki Poonacha & SD Prajwal Dev bt Sahil Gaware & Rishab Agarwal 6-1, 6-4.

Women (quarterfinals): Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Salsa Aher 6-2, 6-2; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi 6-1, 6-1; Prerna Bhambri bt Shreya Tatavarthy 6-2, 7-5; Jagmeet Kaur bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Rishika Sunkara & Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Yubarani Banerjee & Sai Samhitha 6-2, 5-7, [10-8]; Sai Dedeepya & Sara Yadav bt Anusha Kondaveeti & Dakshata Patel 6-3,3 -6, [10-6].

Under-18 boys (quarterfinals): Rohan Mehra bt Chirag Duhan 6-1, 7-5; Udit Gogoi bt Krishan Hooda 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Madhwin Kamath bt Kabir Hans 6-3, 6-4; Mann Maulik Shah bt Uddayvir Singh 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Mann Maulik Shah & Madhwin Kamath bt Denim Yadav & Sammr Raina 6-2, 6-1; Boopathy Sakthivel & Udit Gogoi bt Krishan Hooda & Sushant Dabas 6-3, 7-5.

Under-18 girls (quarterfinals): Rashmikaa Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Kashish Bhatia 6-4, 6-3; Prerna Vichare bt Pooja Ingale 7-6(4), 6-2; Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Bela Tamhankar 6-2, 6-4; Reshma Maruri bt Akanksha Nitture 7-5, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Sanjana Sirimalla & Sudipta Senthilkumar bt Bhakti Shah & Gargi Pawar 6-3, 6-0; Prerna Vichare & Sarah Dev bt Hrudaya Shah & Renee Singh 6-3, 6-0.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)