Manish, Vaishnavi storm into semifinals of Fenesta Open

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) Tamil Nadu's Manish Sureshkumar and top seed Vaishnavi Adkar of Maharashtra advanced to the semifinals of the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship after registering impressive wins in their respective quarterfinal matches here on Thursday.

Manish, a former champion, was made to work hard by Nitin Kumar Sinha of Railway Sports Promotion Board before prevailing 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 in a contest that lasted over three hours at the DLTA Complex here.

After losing the first set, the Tamil Nadu player found his rhythm to level the match and then held his nerve in a tense deciding set tie-break to secure his spot in the last four.

In the women’s singles, Vaishnavi showed her dominance by defeating seventh seed Sahira Singh of Punjab 6-3, 6-1 in straight sets.

The 2025 World University Games bronze medallist broke Sahira’s serve at crucial moments in the first set and then raced through the second to seal her semifinal berth in commanding fashion.

Later in the women’s singles, Soha Sadiq of Karnataka continued her fine run in the tournament with a straight-set win over Haryana’s Aditi Rawat. The fourth seed Sadiq overcame multiple deuce battles to record a 6-3, 6-2 victory in one hour and 35 minutes to reach the semifinals.

In another men’s singles quarterfinals, fourth seed Ishaque Eqbal of West Bengal produced a strong performance to oust seventh seed Ajay Malik of Haryana 6-1, 6-2 and advance to the last four.

The winners will be awarded with prize money from a total prize pool of over Rs 21.55 lakh and kit allowance in the junior categories up for grabs.

The winners and runners-up in the U16 and U14 singles events will also receive a tennis scholarship of Rs 25,000 each.

The Boys and Girls Under-16 and Under-14 category qualifying and main draw matches will be played from October 5 to 11. PTI PDS AM PDS AM AM