Nikshep in junior tennis third round

Top seed B.R. Nikshep thrashed Vatsal Gandhi 6-1, 6-0 to enter the boys Under-16 third round at the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship here Monday.

In other matches, Saurav Kalkal was pushed to three sets by Akash Nandwal but the Delhi boy did well to prevail 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) Complex.

Param Pun was at the receiving end losing to Kushaan Nath 3-6, 0-6 while Chandigarh boy Digvijay Pratap defeated Sahil Garware 6-2, 6-3. Rishab Sharda also did well to reach the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Pallav Kumar Rousha.

There were no major upsets in the boys-14 category with top seed Sumit Pal Singh entering the third round after a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Gaurav Gunupat. Sumit will next face S. Manish of Tamil Nadu who set-up a third-round clash with the top seed following his 6-0, 6-1 win against Nikhil Deshmukh.

Second seed Parikshit Somani also had an easy outing riding on a 6-1, 6-1 win over Rishab Sharda to storm into the next round.

Third seed Nitin Kumar Sinha beat Sacchit Sharma 6-0, 6-4, Yugal Bansal (fourth seed) got rid of Ankit Rao 6-1, 6-2 while Dhruv Sunish got past Prakrut Kartik Patil 6-2, 6-1 on other courts.

Sixth seed Utkarsh Bhardwaj however had to fight hard against Aaditya Muthu Senthilkumar, who did not give up easily. Uttarakhand's Utkarsh lost the first set but did well to come back strongly and win 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

In the girls U-14, wild card Seerat Sidhu will take on top seed Zeel Desai in the third round after she knocked out unseeded Nikay Parikh Ishita 6-4, 6-0.