National Tennis Championship | Vishnu Vardhan pulls past Adil Kalyanpur

Former champion Vishnu Vardhan won a 3-hr 25-min battle, converting his 5th match point to beat Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 in the Fenesta National tennis championship 1st round. Siddharth Vishwakarma, another former champ, used his all-court game to defeat Rishi Reddy. Lucky-loser Sai Karteek Reddy capitalised on top seed S.D. Prajwal Dev's withdrawal to beat Faisal Qamar in straight sets. Other results: Vaidehi Chaudhari, Sai Janvi, Kashish Bhatia, Avishka Gupta, Riya Sachdeva, Sai Samhitha, Vanshika Choudhary won.

Former champion Vishnu Vardhan battled for three hours and 25 minutes and converted his fifth match point to stop the resurgent Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 in the men’s first round of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.

In a high-quality contest, Vishnu asserted his strong game and admirable fitness to walk away with the victory.

Another former champion, the wiry left-hander Siddharth Vishwakarma, played a delightful all-court game, whipping his serves and strokes with a relish to silence the power game of Rishi Reddy.

Top seed S.D. Prajwal Dev withdrew following a groin muscle pull during training, and lucky-loser Sai Karteek Reddy capitalised on the chance to get past qualifier Faisal Qamar in straight sets.

The results (first round):

Men: Sai Karteek Reddy bt Faisal Qamar 7-5, 7-5; Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Ajay Malik 6-0, 6-2; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Rishi Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Suraj Prabodh bt Neeraj Yashpaul 6-3, 6-0; V.M. Ranjeet bt Yash Chaurasia 6-0, 6-3; Sheikh Md. Iftikhar bt Dheeraj Srinivasan 6-3, 7-5; Vishnu Vardhan bt Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5; Kabir Hans bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-4, 6-4.

Women: Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Saily Thakkar 6-2, 6-0; Sai Janvi bt Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-1, 2-6, 6-1; Kashish Bhatia bt Pooja Ingale 6-3, 6-4; Avishka Gupta bt Ishwari Matere 6-3, 2-6, 6-2; Riya Sachdeva bt Shruti Gupta 6-2, 6-3; Sai Samhitha bt Kavya Khirwar 6-1, 1-6, 6-3; Vanshika Choudhary bt HImaanshika Singh 3-6, 7-6(4), 3-0 (retired).