Fenesta National Tennis C’Ship: Sejal Bhutada defeats fifth seed Sharmada Balu in women’s quarterfinals

The 14-year-old, ranked 3290 in the world among juniors, played fearless to beat her 30-year-old opponent in straight sets

Sejal Bhutada, the 14-year-old from Pune reached the women’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship in Delhi. | Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Sejal Bhutada sustained a strong game to beat the fifth seed Sharmada Balu 6-4, 6-2 in the women’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Wednesday.

On another hot day, the 14-year-old Sejal ranked a modest 3290 in the world among juniors, and a trainee of coach Hemant Bendre in Pune played fearless, unmindful of the reputation of her 30-year-old opponent in setting up a quarterfinal against fourth seed Vaishnavi Adkar.

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“Nothing worked for me today”, said Sharmada, who has been focusing on the doubles with considerable success in the international circuit.

Sai Samhitha warded off a stiff challenge from Vanshika Choudhary to make the quarterfinals against second seed Shrivalli Bhamidipaty.

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Top seed Vaidehi Chaudhari will play Lakshmi Prabha, while the other quarterfinal will be between Sandeepti Singh Rao and Akanksha Nitture.

In the men’s event, former champion Vishnu Vardhan pulled off another fighting victory against Kabir Hans in the second set tie-break. He will play second seed Karan Singh in the quarterfinals.

The results (pre-quarterfinals

Men: Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Sai Karteek Reddy 7-5, 7-5; Ishaque Eqbal bt Yash Yadav 6-3, 3-1 (retired); Siddharth Vishwakama bt Suraj Prabodh 7-5, 6-1; VM Ranjeet bt Shivank Bhatnagar 6-3, 6-2; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt G Manish 6-1, 7-6(4); Manish Sureshkumar bt Sheikh Md. Iftikhar 6-1, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt Kabir Hans 6-4, 7-6(3); Karan Singh bt Atharva Sharma 6-0, 1-0 (retired).

Women: Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Sai Janvi 6-4, 6-3; Lakshmi Prabha bt Kashish Bhatia 6-4, 6-3; Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Avishka Gupta 7-5, 6-1; Akanksha Nitture bt Riya Sachdeva 6-0, 6-1; Sejal Bhutada bt Sharmada Balu 6-4, 6-2; Vaishnavi Adkar bt Suhitha Maruri 6-1, 6-2; Sai Samhitha bt Vanshika Choudhary 7-6(9), 7-5; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Yubrani Banerjee 6-0, 6-3.