Adnya, Pragati enter women's singles quarters in AITA C'ship

Pragati Nataraj of Tamil Nadu and Adnya Naik entered the women's singles quarter-finals of the Rs 3.5 lakh DS Max AITA prize money tennis championship for men and women after posting contrasting victories in the second round at the KSLTA Stadium here today.
The Bangalore-based Pragati, rallied from a set down to beat the Mysore girl Varunya Chandrashekar 6-7(4) 6-2 6-3, while Adnya outplayed Moulika Ram of Andhra Pradesh 6-1 6-4.
In a contested that lasted over two hours, Varunya posed a tough challenge to Pragati but the latter proved more consistent when chips were down.
Varunya had her chances in the decider but Pragati, with her solid groundstrokes, grabbed the initiative with an early break.

In contrast, Adnya was in total control against Moulika. Although the AP girl came up with some neat returns in the second set to put some pressure on her rival, spate of unforced errors saw her lose the grip in the end.
Earlier in the men's singles first round, Shakih Abdullah of AP sent the third seed Saurav Sukul of West Bengal packing 7-6(4) 7-5.

For the local fans, the clash between wild card B R Nikshep and Sagar Manjanna generated maximum interest.
Nikshep, who came up with some big forehand winners, broke his rival in the seventh game of the opening set and in the very first game of the second set to wrap it up 6-4 6-4.

Mysore lad Suraj Prabodh also moved up after beating Kumara P Saradhi 6-1 6-3.