Digvijay, Nikshep in quarters of national tennis

Digvijay Pratap Singh played his heart out to enter the Under-14 boys' quarter-finals at the expense of second seed Parikshit Somani in the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championships here Wednesday.

Unseeded Digvijay fought hard in the three-setter clash that lasted over three hours and eventually shut the door on Parikshit 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-2 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) complex.

The first set went with the serve and in the tie-breaker Parikshit edged past Digvijay only to see the Chandigarh boy come back strongly in the next two sets.

In the boys Under-16 category, top seed B.R. Nikshep had to battle hard to make his way to the last eight. Nikshep was up against Delhi's Kushaan Nath, who did not give easy points to the top seed. Kushaan broke Nikshep early when the match was just three games old. But Nikshep did well not to let the match slip away and broke Kushan in the fourth and seventh games.

Nikshep's experience proved crucial in the tie-breaker and the top seed managed to take a lead heading into the second set. Kushaan lost the plot in the second set and just couldn't forge a comeback with Nikshep running away with it after a 4-0 lead, he won the match 7-6(5), 6-2.

In the quarter-finals, Nikshep will meet Venkata Gnan Paramatmuni, who knocked S. Sanjeev out 6-3, 6-2 while second seed Alex Solanki also made it to the next round with his 6-4, 7-5 victory over Shrey Gupta.

Also making it to the quarter-finals were fourth seed Aryan Goveas, who notched up a 6-4, 6-2 win over Dhruv Pal, Udayan Bhakar, who defeated Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-2, and third seed Paramveer Singh Bajwa, who accounted for Anurag Nenwani 6-3, 6-3. Parikshit, who is unseeded in boys Under-16, entered the quarter-final by defeating Gokul Suresh 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4.

In the boys Under-14, top seed Sumit Pal Singh also marched into the last eight stage with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Saurav Kalkal while third seed Nitin Kumar Sinha shut the door on Himanshu Mor 6-1, 6-2.

In girls Under-16, top seed Akshara Iska demolished Aarushi Kakkar 6-1, 6-3 while second seed Zeel Desai and third seed Vanshika Sawhney had an easy passage into the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 6-2 won over Sathwika Sama and 6-1, 6-0 win over Priyana Kalita.

In Under-14 girls, top seed Zeel Desai beat Sarah Dev 6-1, 6-2 and entered into the last eight.