Second seed Haadin Bava put his best game on display to oust two-time finalist and favourite Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-3 in the men’s quarterfinal of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
On a day when the sentimental favourites like the four-time champion Prerna Bhambri, and former champions Mohit Mayur and Nitten Kirrtane were shown the door by Bhuvana Kalva, Manish Sureshkumar and top seed Suraj Prabodh respectively, Haadin impressed with his energetic all-round game.
Building his game on a strong pair of feet that helped him make improbable returns a routine feature of his game, Haadin handled the climax with calm composure, in a battle of wits that spanned two hours and 55 minutes.
Arjun was forced to play his best and after squandering the advantage of an early break in the second set, the graduate from the Oklahoma State University capitalised on his third set point in the tie-break to force the decider.
From being down 0-2 in the decider, Haadin played sharp to shut the doors on Arjun with a decisive break in the eighth game, and served out the match without any drama.
In the semifinals, Haadin will play another power player Dalwinder Singh, who sweated it out against the Asian junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha in three sets. Nitin, running short of energy owing to a string of matches, right from the qualifying event, was later beaten in the junior event as well by the strongly-built Sacchitt Sharma.
Manish Sureshkumar put out Mohit Mayur in three sets after a slow start. Manish was steady with his strokes and Mohit, who had lost to him on the same courts in the Challenger qualifying event last year, did not have the patience to fight it out, as he managed to win two games in two sets.
Suraj Prabodh had all the patience to tame the crafty Nitten Kirrtane. After a dominant first set, Suraj failed to capitalise on a string of breakpoints early in the second set, and dropped serve in the fifth game to complicate matters. However, he broke back and was fluent in
the eventual tie-break.
Bhuvana Kalva had a dramatic recovery after losing the first set at love against Prerna Bhambri. She served and struck with confidence as the match progressed to beat Prerna who had dropped just one game in her first five sets in the tournament.
Bhuvana will play the best junior in the country, and top seed, Zeel Desai, who handled the young Humera Shaikh with conviction. Tanisha Kashyap, guided well by Vishaal Uppal and Rushmi Chakravarthi, outplayed Prinkle Singh for the loss of a solitary game.
Tanisha will play Mahak Jain who put out second seed and former finalist Sai Samhitha for the loss of four games.Tanisha also sailed into the junior girls semifinals, while Humera, with a raw game, bowed to the fluent game of Vaidehi Chaudhari.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men : Suraj Prabodh bt Nitten Kirrtane 6-2, 7-6(4); Manish Sureshkumar bt Mohit Mayur 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; Dalwinder Singh bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Haadin Bava bt Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-3.
Women : Zeel Desai bt Humera Shaikh 6-2, 6-4; Bhuvana Kalva 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; Tanisha Kashyap bt Prinkle Singh 6-1, 6-0; Mahak Jain bt Sai Samhitha 6-2, 6-2.
Boys : Sacchitt Sharma bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-0; Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy bt Fardeen Qamar 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Dhruv Sunish bt Dev Javia 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Siddhant Banthia bt Amit Beniwal 6-0, 6-0.
Girls: Akanksha Bhan bt Shivani Manjanna 6-2, 6-2; Sathwika Sama bt Prerna Vichare 7-6(6), 6-1; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Humera Shaikh 6-1, 6-3; Tanisha Kashyap bt Sravya Shivani 6-2, 6-1.
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