Nikshep in pre-quarters of national tennis

Top seed B.R. Nikshep accounted for Saurav Kalkal to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the boys' Under-16 with a straight sets win at the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championships here Tuesday.

Joining Nikshep in the next round will be second seed Alex Solanki, who defeated Utsav Patel 6-3, 6-4 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) Complex.

Karnataka's Nikshep always held an upper hand over Saurav, breaking his rival in the first game of the match. Saurav could manage to hold his serve only twice in the entire match and went down to his more fancied rival without much fight.

In other boys' U-16 matches, third seed Paramveer Singh Bajwa beat Sivadeep Kosaraju 6-4, 6-2 while fifth seed Gokul Suresh got the better of Sidhant Bhantia 6-1, 6-2.

Fourth seed Aryan Goveas also made it to the pre-quarterfinals at the expense of Armaan Bhatia 6-1, 6-0.

Vasisht Vinod Cheruku defeated Amarnath Arora 6-3, 6-1, 10th seed Sanil Jagtiani edged out Yash Yadav 7-5, 6-1 while S. Sanjeev knocked out P.C. Anirudh 6-2, 7-6(5).

Among U-14 boys, top seed Sumit Pal Singh survived a tough battle against S. Manish. The Jammu and Kashmir boy was broken in the third game but broke back in the next to draw level.

Just when it seemed the set was heading into a tie-breaker, Manish broke Sumit in the ninth game and then served out the set to win the first set 6-4.

It was another tough fight in the second set in which Sumit prevailed and the match headed for a decider. Sumit carried the momentum in the final set and surged into a 4-0 lead that virtually put paid to Manish's efforts.

Second seed Pariskshit Somani had an easy outing and demolished Pratyush Chhotray 6-0, 6-0.

For eighth seed Mritunjay Badola it was curtains after the Uttarakhand lad lost to Naitholin Golmei 5-7, 5-7.

In the girls' 16, top seed Akshara Iska got the better of Yubrani Banerjee 6-1, 6-2 and moved into the pre-quarterfinals.