Bajwa, Arora make second round exits

Second and third seeds Paramveer Bajwa and Amarnath Arora were shocked by unseeded rivals in round two of the J S Pereira Memorial AITA ranking tennis tournament for men Wednesday.

Atharva Sharma of Maharashtra knocked out Punjab's Bajwa in three sets while Andhra Pradesh'sSrinivas stunned Delhi's Arora, also in three sets, at the Bandra Gymkhana here.

Sharma played with determination and stunned Bajwa by winning a tight tie-breaker to pocket the first set.

But he seemed to have lost focus as Bajwa made a strong reply and without dropping a game won the second to level the scores.

In the deciding set, Maharashtra's Sharma capitalised on unforced errors from Bajwa and went on to win the third to complete a 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-4 win and move into quarter-finals.

AP's Srinivas started hesitantly and struggled to keep pace with Delhi's Arora who hit some fine passing shots to easily claim the first set.

But Srinivas got his act together and, with slight change in tactics, started to play more aggressively to win the next two sets for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory to also book a place in the last eight.

Also advancing into the quarters were top seed Ishaque Eqbal of West Bengal and fifth seed Mohammed Fahad of Tamil Nadu who stayed on course to advance.

Sixth seed Bharath Nishok Kumaran of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra's eighth seed Tejas Chaukulkar crashed out in the second round after losing in three sets.

Kumaran lost to Rohan Bhatia of Maharashtra in three sets, while Gujarat's Vaidik Munshaw accounted for Chaukulkar.

Results: Men's singles (2nd round): 1-Ishaque Eqbal (WB) bt Raghav Jaisinghani (MP) 6-1, 6-2; 5-Mohammed Fahad (TN) bt Gunjan Jadhav (MH) 6-2, 6-1; K Srinivas (AP) bt 3-Amarnath Arora (DL) 1-6, 6-2, 6-4; Vaidik Munshaw (GJ) bt 8-Tejas Chaukulkar (MH) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5; Shahbaaz Khan (MH) bt Praneet Kudale (MH) 6-0, 6-3; 4-Shivam Dalmia (DL) bt Yash Yadav (MP) 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3; Rohan Bhatia (MH) bt 6-Bharath Nishok Kumaran (TN) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4; Atharva Sharma (MH) bt 2-Paramveer Singh Bajwa (PB) 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-4.

Men's Doubles (2nd round): Ishaque Eqbal (WB)/ Yash Yadav (MP) bt Shastri Shimon (MH)/Raghav Jaisinghani (MP) 6-4, 7-5; Tarun Karra (TS)/Arthav Neema (MP) bt Suraj H.(KL)/Umair Shaik (AP) 6-3, 4-6, 10-7; Mohit Bhardwaj (DL)/ Sagar Ahuja (MH) bt Arjun Mahadevan (TN)/Bharath Nisok Kumaran (TN) 6-4, 7-6(3).