Vishnu, Lakshit advance to 2nd round in tennis nationals

Second seed Vishnu Vardhan opened his title defence with a 6-3 6-4 win over Manish Sureshkumar in the men's singles event in the Fenesta Open, the national hard court tennis championship, here today.
Manish showed good fighting ability but Vishnu had the game, specially serve, to overcome his opponent.
"He is a good retriever. I had not played him before so did not know how his game would be from the two flanks," Vishnu said after his win.
Also advancing was Lakshit Sood, who outslugged seasoned left-hander Nitten Kirrtane 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-2 in his opening round on another hot day at the DLTA complex, when the maximum temperature hovered around 36 degrees Celsius.

Former champion and fourth seed VM Ranjeet took time to settle down before downing Prajwal Dev 4-6 6-3 6-1.
In the women's singles, defending champion Prerna Bhambri defeated 16-year-old Mihika Yadav 6-4 6-1.

It was an easy outing for Snehadevi S Reddy, title favourite and top seed, as she demolished Sneha Padamata 6-0 6-0.
Among juniors, top seeds Aryan Goveas and Zeel Desai moved in the next round of the Boys' and Girls' categories of the under-18.
Results:
Men's Singles:
Vishnu Vardhan (Seed 2) bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-3, 6-4;Shaikh Abdullah (Seed 7) bt Udaya Kumar Reddy 7-6 (5), 6-2;Lakshit Sood bt Nitten Kirrtane 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-2;V M Ranjeet (Seed 4) bt Prajwal Dev S D 4-6, 6-3, 6-1;Shahbaaz Khan bt Anvit Bendre (Seed 5) 6-3, 6-2;Alex Solanki bt Avinash Borthakur 6-1, 7-5;Vilaser Khate bt Sahil Gaware 6-1, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Chandril Sood 6-1, 1-6, 6-3

Women's Singles:
Snehadevi S Reddy (Seed 1) bt Sneha Padamata 6-0, 6-0;Samriti Punyani bt Neeru Rapria 6-3, 6-1;Eete Mahete(Seed 6) bt Abinikka Renganathan 6-2, 6-2;Prerna Bhambri (Seed 4) bt Mihika Yadav (Seed 4) 6-4, 6-1; Vaniya Dangwal bt Moulika B Ram 6-3,6-4; Amrita Mukherjee bt Teertha Iska 6-4,6-1;Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Satvika Sama 6-3,6-3;Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Preethi Ujjini 6-3 6-3.