Fenesta National Tennis: Niki Poonacha, Zeel Desai in focus

Prerna Bhambri is in the same quarter as fourth seed Sai Samhitha who plays Kashish Bhatia in the first round.

Top seed Niki Poonacha should start as favourite in the men's section.

The presence of young aspirants Karan Singh and Chirag Duhan should make the men’s section of the Fenesta National Tennis Championship lively at the DLTA Complex this week.

With one of the final round men’s qualification matches yet to be completed, the suspense continues about the position of the qualifiers in the main draw.

The presence of former national champions Niki Poonacha, VM Ranjeet, Dalwinder Singh, Vishnu Vardhan and Siddharth Vishwakarma should also add to the competitive flair.

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The men’s and women’s competition will feature two brothers and a sister from Rajasthan - Faisal Qamar, Fardeen Qamar and Farhat Aleen Qamar.

In the women’s section, top seed Zeel Desai should start as favourite, even though the field has many players of considerable quality.

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Zeel starts against Yubrani Banerjee, while second seed Vaidehi Chaudhari will open against lucky loser Niyati Kukreti.

Sharmada Balu came through the qualifying event and will start against her friend Rishika Sunkara.

Multiple-time National champion Prerna Bhambri is in the same quarter as fourth seed Sai Samhitha who plays Kashish Bhatia in the first round.

It should be a week of interesting tennis, with the men’s and women’s champions set to pocket Rs 3,00,000 each, and the runners-up Rs 2,00,000 each.

The results (qualifying event, third and final round):

Men: Faisal Qamar bt Parav Garg 6-2, 6-3; Vishnu Vardhan bt Ajay Malik 6-2, 6-1; Boopathy Sakthivel bt Siddharth Arya 6-4, 7-5; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Lohtith Bathrinath 6-2, 6-4; Karan Singh bt Madhwin Kamath 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Parikshit Somani bt Jagmeet Singh 6-3, 6-2; Neeraj Yashpaul bt Deepender Grewal 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Women: Shruti Ahlawat bt Anjali Rathi 6-2, 6-1; Priyanshi Bhandari bt

Lakshmi Gowda 6-3, 6-3; Farhat Aleen Qamar bt Sonashe Bhatnagar 6-3, 6-3; Shefali Arora bt Radhiya Yadav 6-4, 6-0; Sudipta Kumar bt Ihwari Matere 6-3, 6-0; Vanshita Pathania bt Nandini Dixit 7-5, 6-1; S Srinidhi bt Niyati Kukretii 6-4, 5-7, 6-1; Sharmada Balu bt Kiran Kalkal 6-1, 6-2.

The seedings:

Men: 1. Niki Poonacha, 2. Ishaque Eqbal, 3. Nitin Kumar Sinha, 4. Paras Dahiya, 5. Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam, 6. Prhtivi Sekhar, 7. Dalwinder Singh, 8. SD Prajwal Dev.

Women: 1. Zeel Desai, 2. Vaidehi Chaudhari, 3. Sravya Shivani, 4. Sai Samhitha, 5. Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, 6. Mihika Yadav, 7. Arthi Muniyan, 8. Prerna Bhambri.