The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Top seeds advance with ease

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Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Top seeds advance with ease

Amitabha Das Sharma

Local lad Manoj Kumar Sewa shocks Gunneshwaran

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

ON COURSE: Karan Rastogi in action against Saif Ali on Monday.

KOLKATA: The top seeds in the men’s and women’s sections — Karan Rastogi and Rushmi Chakravarthi — defeated their opponents in straight sets in the National grass court tennis here on Monday.

The seeded players seemed to enjoy the bounce and pace of the well-manicured courts and their comfort on the surface was reflected in the scores.

There were, however, two exceptions to the trend. In the men’s section it was eighth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneshwaran who fell to local challenger Manoj Kumar Sewa.

Treta stuns Parul

In the women’s category, it was another local player, Treta Bhattacharya, who packed off National Games champion and sixth seed Parul Goswami of Delhi, in action which went to the decider.

The man who drew a lot of attention was Harsh Mankad. Mankad cut through the resistance of Divyanshu Singh of Delhi by employing a wide array of shots.

The match was stopped as the grass became slippery owing to dew with Mankad leading 6-4, 4-2.

Three other men’s first round matches remained unfinished with Sayed Fazaluddin, Kamala Kannan and P.C. Vignesh leading over their respective opponents.

In the women’s section second seeded Sonal Phadke, third seeded Asha Nanda Kumar, fifth seeded Sweta Solanki sailed into the next round with easy wins.

The results (first round):

Men’s singles: Karan Rastogi (Mah) bt Saif Ali (Ben) 6-1, 6-4; Divij Sharan (Del) bt Mohammad Fariz (TN) 6-3, 7-6(5); Vinod Sridhar (TN) bt Rohan Gide (Mah) 6-4, 6-0; Manoj Kumar Sewa (Ben) bt Prajnesh Gunneshwaran (TN) 6-2, 6-3; Vishnu Vardhan (AP) bt Shivang Mishra (Del) 6-3, 6-2.

Women’s singles: Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) bt Chirashanti Rajur (Kar) 6-0, 6-0; Shahin Ansari (TN) bt Jayapalan Kesika (TN) 6-4, 6-3; Geeta Manohar (AP) bt Arushi Sharma (Del) 6-1, 6-0; Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah) bt Shilpi Jaiswal (Bih) 6-1, 6-1; Asha Nanda Kumar (Kar) bt Rohini Das (Ben) 6-0, 6-1; Poojashree Venkatesh (Kar) bt Anupama Rajur (Kar) 6-0, 6-2; Sweta Solanki (Del) bt D. Harshini Reddy (Kar) 6-0, 6-1; Anushree Thamanna (Kar) bt Shivika Burman (Ben) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Smita Rani Jain (IAF) bt Sagarika Phadke (Mah) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Treta Bhattacharyya (Ben) bt Parul Goswami (Del)1-6, 6-4, 6-4; Anukriti Prasad (Del) bt Mohana Sarker (Ben) 7-5, 7-6(4); Dipti Srivastava (Ben) bt Jilke Nelord (Del) 6-3, 6-2; Sonal Phadke (Mah) bt Abhilasha Ahuja (Har) 6-3, 6-3.

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