Dalwinder, Sureshkumar storm into quarter finals

National champion Dalwinder Singh of Punjab and third seed Manish Sureshkumar of Tamil Nadu moved into the men's singles quarter-finals in the AITA Ranking JVPG Anirudh Desai All-India Open Tennis Tournament today.

The 21-year-old Punjab player, seeded two, used his strong serves and impressive all-round play to sideline 18-year-old Dhruv Sunish of Maharashtra, winning in two sets 6-3, 6-4 in a second round match at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana's tennis courts.

Dalwinder faced some initial resistance from the younger Maharashtra player and did well to save a break point in the fifth game. But, he hit back hard by breaking Dhruv in the sixth to open up a 4-2 lead before going on to claim the first set in 36 minutes.
 

Dalwinder continued to call the shots in the second and, with a lone break in the fifth, went on to win it to wrap up the match and take his place in the last eight.

Earlier, 18-year-old Manish Sureshkumar quashed the aspiration of his state mate 16-year-old Madhwin Kamath in straight sets, 6-3 6-4.

In the round of eight, Sureshkumar will take on Karnataka's sixth seed Prajwal Dev who prevailed over Paramveer Singh Bajwa of Punjab winning 6-1, 6-2.

In women's second round matches, fourth seed Nithyaraj Baburaj (TN) defeated Sravya Shivani (TS) 7-6 (2), 6-1, while sixth seed Humera Shaikh (TS) rallied to beat unseeded Swetha Banerjee (WB) 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Fifth seed Eetee Maheta failed to cross the second hurdle going down tamely to unheralded Bhuvana Kalva 2-6, 5-7.

Eighth seed Nidhi Chilumula (TS) had an easy second round outplaying Pareen Shivekar (MH) 6-1, 6-1 to also advance to the quarters.

Results -

Women's singles (2nd round): 8-Nidhi Chilumula (TS) bt Pareen Shivekar (MH) 6-1, 6-1; 4-Nithyaraj Baburaj (TN) bt Sravya Shivani (TS) 7-6(2), 6-1; Dedeepya Sai (TS) bt Dakshata Patel (MH) 6-4, 6-3;Bhuvana Kalva bt 5-Eetee Maheta (GJ) 6-2, 7-5; Mihika Yadav (MH) bt Shreya Tatavarthy (AP) 1-3 (conceded); 6-Humera Shaikh (TS) bt Swetha Banerjee 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Men's singles (2nd round): Prajwal Dev (KA) bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa (PB) 6-1, 6-2; 3-Manish Sureshkumar (TN) bt Madhwin Kamath (TN) 6-3, 6-4; 2-Dalwinder Singh (PB) bt Dhruv Sunish (MH) 6-3, 6-4; Prenamallur Vignesh (AP) bt 8-Faisal Qamar (RJ) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.