Lucknow: Local challengers Gautam Anand and Eeshita Pandey set the pace with flying starts, scoring contrasting wins on the opening day of the main draw of the RS Sagar Memorial 12th Eldeco Cup Tennis Championship, at the SDS Tennis Court in BBD Badminton Academy here today.
Energetic Gautam beat Rajasthan’s Sandeep Chaudhary by 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in a marathon first round match in the men’s singles, where as Eeshita was at her best in disposing off Delhi girl Sudeshna Sen 4-0, 4-0 in straight sets.
Seeded players in both men’s and women’s categories had smooth sailing as top seed in the men’s section Saurabh Singh of Delhi did little to outplay state-mate Rohit Jain 6-1, 6-1, where as second seed Mohammad Azhar of West Bengal struggled a bit to beat Orissa’s Santosh Mallik 6-3, 6-4.
The women section matches too witnessed one sided encounters, except eighth seed Sumeera Kamil of Delhi staging some fine display as she bounced back superbly to beat her city mate Joshini Tuli 0-4, 4-1, 4-2 in a first round match.
Fourth seed Arushi Bhasin of Delhi dropped just two games in the first set before knocking out UP’s Meenu Pandey 4-2, 4-0 in another exciting match.
Earlier, joint commissioner, customs, KP Singh and Eldeco’s director Tarun Kumar Dixit inaugurated the five-day event at a colourful function. SDS officials like Pawan Sagar, his wife Poonam Sagar lit the lamp. Mrs Krishna Sagar, wife of late RS Sagar, JS Kaul, Ram Singh, Ravi Sobti etc were also present on the occasion.
RESULTS
Men’s singles (1stround): Gautam Anand (UP) bt Sandeep Chaudhary (Raj) 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, Saurabh Singh (Dli) beat Rohit Jain (Dli) 6-1, 6-1, Rubal Shandilya (Dli) bt Sidhartha Vishvakarma (UP) 6-3, 6-0, Mukund Sasi Kumar (TN) bt Mridul Kharkwal (UP) 6-1, 6-0, Shantanu Rajput (Dli) bt Aditya Tewari (MP) 6-2, 6-4, Chinmay Pradhan (Ors) bt P Vignesh (TN) 6-1, 6-1, Mohammad Shahdab Khan (Dli) bt Gagan Sharma (Raj) 7-5, 6-1, Anubhav Chaudhary (Dli) bt Prashant Soodamani (Mah) 6-3, 6-3, Whourie Keseiselotuo (Dli) bt Archit Jain (Dli) 6-1, 6-3, Sunny Dihiya (Hr) bt Praduman Buddhiraja (UP) 6-3, 6-3, Vishnu Jinan (Ktr) bt Abhilash Srivastava (UP) 7-6 (5), 6-2, Mohammad Azhar (Wb) bt Santosh Mallik (Ors) 6-3, 6-4.
Women’s singles (1stround): Eeshita Pandey (UP) bt Sudeshna Sen (Dli) 4-0, 4-0, Sukhmani Kaur (Dli) bt Sitara Sahani (UP) 4-1, 4-0, Shruti Archita (Mah) bt Shenlini Verma (MP) 4-2, 4-0, Sanya Madan (UP) bt Shaheen Ahmad (UP) 4-0, 4-1, Disha Satish Agarwal (Dli) bt Shivantika Verma (MP) 4-0, 4-0 , Tulana Nan (Wb) bt Seema Kumari (Dli) 4-0, 4-2, Namita Bal (Mah) bt Aarti Kashyap (UP) 4-0, 4-0, Deepshikha Gupta (Raj) bt Sowmya Naidu Nigam (AP) 1-4, 4-1, 4-2, Megha Sehrawat (Dli) bt Diksha Agarwal(Dli) 4-3 (5), 4-2, Samriti Punyani (Dli) bt Mahrukh Kokni (Mah) 0-4, 4-2, 4-1, Arushi Bhasin (Dli) bt Meenu Pandey (UP) 4-2, 4-0, Sumeera Kamil (Dli) bt Joshini Tuli (Dli) 0-4, 4-1, 4-2, Tanvee Bose (Dli) bt Shivana Zaidi (UP) 4-1, 4-0, Areyalee Chavan (Mah) bt Manisha Sahani (UP) 4-0, 4-0, Damini Sharma (UP) bt Kirandeep Kaur Kotade (Guj) 4-1, 4-1.
By Indian Sports News Network
