Bandra Gym J.S. Pereira AITA tennis
Except for seventh seed Arjun Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu all the remaining top seven seeds marched into the second round comfortably winning their first round matches in the men’s singles first round match of the J.S. Pereira Memorial AITA Ranking (Rs 2 lakhs) Men’s Tennis Tournament, organized and hosted by the Bandra Gymkhana and played at their floodlit tennis courts on Tuesday.
The Tamil Nadu player Mahadevn started promisingly and managed to win an energy sapping first set over the tie-breaker against Maharashtra’s unseeded Shahbaaz Khan. But, thereafter Mahadevan clearly seemed to have ran out of steam and tamely lost the next two sets as Khan clinched a deserving 6-7(5), 6-1 and 6-2 win to book a place in the second round.
Meanwhile, top seed Ishaque Eqbal of West Bengal staved off a spirited fight from Kerala’s Suraj H. to snatch a straight set 7-5, 6-4 victory in his opening round encounter. Punjab’s second Seed Paramveer Singh Bajwa had a much easier time as he outplayed Mahasrashtra;s unseeded Nishant Mehta racing to an easy 6-1, 6-4 win in another first round encounter.
Third seed Amarnath Arora and fourth seed Shivam Dalmia, both from Delhi also won their first round encounters to progress to the next round. Arora faced a bit of resistance initially but later was in complete control as he sidelined Telangana’s lucky loser Tarun Karra 7-6(3), 6-2; while Dalmia did not have to exert too much as he dropped just one game and outplayed another lucky loser Rishabh Kalokhe of Maharashtra 6-0, 6-1.
Results – Men’s singles (round-1): 1-Ishaque Eqbal (WB) Vs Suraj H. (KL) 7-5, 6-4; Raghav Jaisinghani (MP) bt Yeswanth Loganathan (TN) 6-3, 6-3; Gunjan Jadhav (MH) bt Shaik Umair (AP) 6-1, 6-4; 5-Mohammed Fahad (TN) bt Vivek Gautam (KA) 7-5, 6-4; 3-Amarnath Arora (DL) Vs Tarun Karra (TS) 7-6(3), 6-2; K Srinivas (AP) bt P Apuroop Reddy (TS) 2-6 6-4, 6-4; Munshaw Vaidik (GJ) bt Karan Lalchandani (MH) 6-1, 6-0; 8-Tejas Chaukulkar (MH) bt Macherla Theertha Shashank (TS) 6-4, 6-3; Shahbaaz Khan (MH) bt 7-Arjun Mahadevan (TN) 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2; Praneet Kudale (MH) bt Akash Nandwal (MP) 7-6(10), 6-3; Yash Yadav (MP) Vs Maulin R Aghara (GJ) 6-4, 6-3; 4-Shivam Dalmia (DL) bt Rishabh Kalokhe (MH) 6-0, 6-1; 6-Bharath Nishok Kumaran (TN) bt Mohit Bahardwaj (DL) 6-0, 6-4; Rohan Bhatia (MH) bt Arthav Neema (MP) 6-3, 6-1; Atharva Sharma (MH) bt Shimon Shastri 6-2, 4-6, 6-4; 2-Paramveer Singh Bajwa (PB) bt Nishant Mehta (MH) 6-1, 6-4.