Vishnu Vardhan, Nitin Kumar advance in Fenesta Open

New Delhi, Oct 1 (PTI) Former Asian Games medallist Vishnu Vardhan and top seed Nitin Kumar Sinha advanced to the third round of the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship with easy victories against their opponents, here on Wednesday.

The Telangana-based Vardhan eased past Deepak A. 6-1, 6-2 while Bengal player Nitin also won after Smit Patel retired hurt when the score at 6-3, 3-2 in the other men's singles match.

Former champion Manish Sureshkumar of Tamil Nadu and Soha Sadiq of Karnataka won their respective matches to reach the third round.

Sureshkumar showcased power and speed to get the better of Debasis Sahoo of Odisha 6-2, 6-1, while Soha had to work hard for her 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory against Aakruti Sonkusare of Maharashtra in the women's singles second round.

Second seed Akanksha Nitture of Maharashtra also continued her fine run, defeating Sohini Sanjay Mohanty 6-1, 7-6 (2) to reach the third round, while Punjab’s Sahira Singh looked in command in her second-round win against Jeetesh Kumari 6-3, 6-2.

The tournament has a prize purse of over Rs 21.55 lakh in the junior categories. 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 qualifying and main draw matches will be played from October 5 to 11. PTI AM AM PDS PDS