Banthia shocks last year runner-up Prabodh at Fenesta Nationals

A confident Siddhant Banthia used his experience of playing at the junior Grand Slams to knock out the fourth seed and last year's runner-up Suraj Prabodh from the men's singles event of the Fenesta National Tennis Championship here on Tuesday.

In an impressive show, Banthia played an all-round game to oust Prabodh 6-3 6-1 in his opening round.

The 18-year-old moved swiftly on the court, stroked fluently and was always in control of the proceedings.

He opened up the court to spray winners easily even as Prabodh looked like a pale shadow of himself.

"The junior Grand Slam level is equal to India's men's circuit. As I am making a transition from junior to senior, the experience of playing at junior Majors has helped me a lot," said Banthia, who shot to prominence after winning the Road to Wimbledon and then the UK's Under-14 national championship.

"This championship will test me physically. Today the biggest plus was my serve. I did not lose many points on my serve. He has a single-handed backhand and that can't hurt me. The key is self-belief and I have that coming into this tournament," he said.

The self belief was evident when Banthia said he is sure of winning the Under-18 doubles title and that's why he has entered three events this year.

"I am hungry for titles. I won's miss one, if there is one for taking," said the Pune boy who is top seed in the Under-18 championship and has moved to the quarterfinals with a 6-2 6-3 win over Delhi's Rohan Mehra.

However, other promising juniors such as Dakshineshwar Suresh and