Fenesta Open: Vishnu Vardhan, Maaya Revathi Continue on Winning Track

Multiple Asian Games medallist Vishnu Vardhan and youngster Maaya Revathi continued their winning run to reach the quarterfinals of the 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship in their respective categories on Wednesday.

Top seed and former national champion Vishnu had to dig deep in the second-round match against Bhicky Sagolshem of Manipur as he registered a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win.

The Telangana player began the match on a positive note and broke Bhicky’s serve twice, taking a 5-1 lead before the Manipur player won two back-to-back games to keep the first set alive.

However, Vishnu utilised his experience and played his shots with precision to win the first set.

The second set witnessed a seesaw battle between both the players as the scores were level 5-5 at one point before the Manipuri player upped his ante and clinched the next two games to take the contest into the third set where Vishnu reigned supreme by a 6-2 margin.

In the women’s singles category, young sensation Maaya of Tamil Nadu carried forward her momentum from the last match and produced another quality performance against Telangana’s Saumya Ronde.

The 15-year-old, who holds the record for the longest ITF Juniors winning streak, looked in complete control of the game and won the contest 6-3, 6-0 in straight sets.

Last year’s finalist Vaidehee Chaudhari of Gujarat blanked Delhi’s Riya Sachdeva 6-0, 6-0 without losing a game to reach the last-eight, while experienced campaigner Riya Bhatia got the better of Jharkhand’s Nemha Kispotta 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets.

Meanwhile, the men’s singles category saw upsets as Nitin Kumar Sinha (RSPB) defeated fourth seed Kabir Hans of Odisha 7-6(5), 6-2 and Manipur’s Bushan Haobam beat sixth seed Ranjeet VM of Tamil Nadu 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarters.

Gujarat’s Smit Patel (9th seed) continued his winning run in the boys singles U-18 category and defeated eighth seed Akshat Dhull of Chandigarh 7-5, 6-0 in the third round.

In the girls singles U-18 category, Maharashtra’s Sejal Bhutada (14th seed) beat top seed Laxmi Dandu in a three-set thriller 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.