National Tennis Championship: Top-seed Kadhe, youngster Sinha, Ranjeet reach quarterfinals

The promising Nitin Kumar Sinha made short work of qualifier Anshu Bhuyan but top seed Arjun Kadhe had to fight it out with a diminutive and chubby Yugal Bansal to make the men's singles quarterfinals of Fenesta National Tennis Championships here Wednesday.

Youngster Sinha, who is making a transition from junior to the senior circuit without a regular coach, dominated Bhuyan from the word go and ended up a deserving 6-2 6-1 winner.

The 19-year-old from Kolkata remained solid with his returns throughout the match, never letting his opponent play his game.

Sinha hardly missed anything and made Bhuyan go for risky shots, piling on the errors.

"I don't have a coach now. If I need to discuss anything, I do it with either my father or Rajesh Rai sir who lives in Raipur. It's a big tournament and there is good prize money (Rs 3 lakh for the winner), so I want to do well here," said Sinha, who used to train with Akhtar Ali at Calcutta Club.

He will next take on another junior star Siddhant Banthia, who eased past B R Niskshep 6-1 6-1.

Top seed Kadhe had to earn the win from 19-year-old undergraduate Bansal, who hit the ball hard and was solid from the baseline with his returns.

Kadhe was the more experienced and had a bigger game to emerge winner with a 6-2 6-3 score-line. To his credit, Bansal, who trains with Gaurav Sharma in Delhi, made it as tough for Kadhe as possible, breaking him twice in the second set.

"He had a good game. It was a completely different match from the first round. Bansal was solid from behind while Kunal Anand had a bigger serve. I found my rhythm as the match wore on. Since he was staying behind I could try a bit of serve and volley today," said Kadhe.

Kadhe next faces young Isaque Iqbal, who advanced when Jayesh Pungliya retired while trailing 2-5 in the opening set due to fever.

Former champions Mohit Mayur Prakash and V M Ranjeet were involved in a dogfight in which the latter prevailed 6-2 2-6 6-2 in searing heat. Ranjeet will lock horns with third seed Sidharth Rawat advanced after CP Anirudh retired after trailing 0-5 following a thigh injury.

In the women's singles, the top two seeds advanced without breaking a sweat. Top seed Zeel Desai thrashed Anusha Kondaveeti 6-0 6-1 while second seed and defending champion Mahak Jain blanked Avika Sagwal 6-0 6-0.

Meanwhile, in the Under-18 boys' championship, Ajay Malik saved a match point to edge past S Reddy Ghanta 7-5 4-7 7-6(4). Reddy mostly played on the backhand side of Malik but the Haryana player negotiated the strategy to eventually move to the quarterfinals.

(With inputs from agencies.)