National C'ship: Ranjeet downs Mohit, Kadhe to meet Eqbal

The 33-year-old Ranjeet, who enjoys a 7-3 win-loss record against the 25-year-old Mohit in the professional circuit, started well and handled the climax with considerable maturity.

Photo of four-time National champion Prerna Bhambri who sailed past Shweta Rana into the women's quarterfinals of the National tennis championship in Delhi on Wednesday.

The reigning National grass court champion VM Ranjeet asserted his all-court game by taming former national champion and eighth seed Mohit Mayur 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the men’s pre-quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old Ranjeet, who enjoys a 7-3 win-loss record against the 25-year-old Mohit in the professional circuit, started well and handled the climax with considerable maturity. Mohit who serves big and unleashes an explosive forehand at every opportunity was unable to ride on his power game in a tricky third set, in which he did well to
save two match points before bowing out.

Ranjeet will next play third Sidharth Rawat who sailed past Anirudh Chandrasekar as the latter retired after five games in the first set owing to an injury.

Top seed Arjun Kadhe set up a quarterfinal against Ishaque Eqbal whose opponent Jayesh Pungliya gave up after seven games, as he had been weakened owing to a bout of viral fever.

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Second seed Manish Sureshkumar was in impressive form as he handled the power game of Paras Dahiya with considerable poise. He will be challenged by the wiry Siddharth Vishwakarma, who pulled through against SD Prajwal Dev in the third set.

The other quarterfinal will feature Siddhant Banthia against fifth seed Nitin Kumar Sinha.

In the women’s event, four-time national champion Prerna Bhambri broke little sweat in outplaying Shweta Rana for the loss of four games. She will play the young Humera Shaik who conserved a lot of energy as her opponent Muskan Gupta retired after one game.

Humera had tamed Muskan earlier in the day in the under-18 girls section in three sets.

Top seed Zeel Desai cruised and so did Sathwika Sama who outplayed Rishika Sunkara for the loss of two games.

The other quarterfinal will be between Ramya Natarajan who battled long to tame Soha Sadiq 7-6(1), 1-6, 7-5, to face the athletic Natasha Palha, who knocked out third seed Sai Samhitha for the loss of five games.

In the junior boys event, Siddhant Banthia, Krish Patel, Madhwin Kamath, Dhruv Tangri, Kabir Hans, Calvin Golmei and Drona Walia made the quarterfinals. They were joined by Ajay Malik who saved a match point to beat Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4).

In the junior girls section, Farhat Aleen Qamar, Humea Shaik, Ishika Singh, Sara Yadav, Sarah Dev, Rashmikaa Shrivalli Bamidipathy, Kashish Bhatia and Sharannya Gaware made the quarterfinals.