Pune: Local lad Neil Laplikar scored an upset win over State-mate and 16th seed Jaganmaya Panigrahi to make it to the second round of the Walchand Cup Under-16 National Series tennis tournament at Deccan Gymkhana, on Monday.
In a one-sided match, Laplikar knocked out his higher ranked opponent 6-2, 6-3 in the only upset of the day to enter the Round of 32 on Monday morning.
It turned out to be a good day overall for local players, with Ved Bhandare, Aditya Gokhale, Jayesh Pungaliya, Yash Agarwal, and Indra Patwardhan all making it to the second round.
India’s second ranked U-16 girl, Snehadevi Reddy of Mumbai, is the top seed for the girls singles event, while Karnataka’s Dhruti Venugopal, who practices a lot at the Deccan Gymkhana courts, is the second seed.
Apart from Reddy, Devanshi Bhimjiyani (No 4), Vasanti Shinde (No 5), Prabhuti Singhania (No 10), Kavita Mishra (No 11), Yuden Shyodhi (No 12), Sharlee Deshmukh (No 16) are the other seeded players from Maharashtra.