Nitten Kirrtane tamed Vijay Kannan in a battle of former champions 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in the men’s first round of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.
The 43-year-old Nitten was more energetic of the two as he broke Vijay who was serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider, and won three games on the trot to close it out.
It was a crafty old school game, and Vijay, who had finished runner-up in the last National grass court championship conceded that his opponent was more fit of the two.
"I missed the Futures as I was not sure about playing the qualifying. I have been practising well, hitting with Arjuna Kadhe and Ankita Raina in Pune. I trained with Mihir Tenarikar that has helped a lot", said Nitten, who had beaten Vijay in the final of the national championship in 1998.
Vijay went on to win the title three years later, taming Rohan Bopanna in the final. "I have not been playing many tournaments. I was rusty at the start. Nitten is very fit and plays a lot", said Vijay.
In another lively match, top seed Suraj Prabodh got past the clutches of Ansu Kumar Bhuyan in three sets. Ansu repented missing three set points in the first set tie-break, and cramped in the third set. He had beaten Suraj in their last meeting.
Manish Sureshkumar, the easy stroking lad, knocked out fifth seed S. D. Prajwal Dev in straight sets.
Second seed Haadin Bava had to be at his fighting best to tame Aryan Goveas after losing the first set.
PTI adds
In the women's category, Zeel Desai dispatched Harshita Chugh 6-2, 6-0 in a one-sided women’s singles first round.
On court number six, eighth seed Faisal Qamar managed to subdue talented Dhakshineshwar Suresh 7-6(3), 6-4 to make it to the second round.
Dhakshineshwar, who won the Under-16 championhsip last year, gifted away easy points and struggled to contain his unforced errors.
“I could not place the ball where I wanted to today. I could not practice yesterday and today since there no courts, it affected me a bit. I could not feel the ball,” he said after huis defeat.
The results (first round):
Men: Suraj Prabodh bt Ansu Kumar Bhuyan 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3; Nitten Kirrtane bt Vijay Kannan 6-3, 3-6, 7-5; Kunal Anand bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-2; Manish Sureshkumar bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-3, 6-4; Faisal Qamar bt Suresh Dhakshineswar 7-6(3), 6-4; Dalwinder Singh bt Paras Dahiya 0-6, 6-2, 6-4; Jayesh Pungliya bt Digvijay Singh Mehta 6-3, 6-3;
Haadin Bava bt Aryan Goveas 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Women: Zeel Desai bt Harshita Chugh 6-2, 6-0; Shreya Gulia bt Prakriti Banwani 6-3, 6-2; Shweta Rana bt Sindhu Janagam 6-3, 6-3; Bhuvana Kalva bt Shruti Gupta 6-1, 6-0; Yubrani Banerjee bt Smriti Singh 6-1, 6-1; Snehadevi Reddy bt Arushi Bhasin 6-0, 6-0; Soha Sadiq bt Samriti Punyani 6-4, 6-4.
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