Tamil Nadu’s Abhinav Sanjeev makes sensational start

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu’s star Abhinav Sanjeev S began the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship with a victory on Tuesday at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi.

Abhinav Sanjeev played brilliantly in the men’s singles category and utilized his power to precision to win the match comfortably. He defeated Aajay Malik of Haryana 6-0, 6-2 in straight sets, while Sheikh Md. Iftikhar (Karnataka) beat Tamil Nadu’s Dheeraj Srinivasan 6-3, 7-5 to reach the second round.

On the other hand, Olympian J Vishnu Vardhan and defending champion Vaidehee Chaudhari of Gujarat also registered victories.

Telangana’s Vishnu Vardhan, who is also the eighth seed in the tournament, had to dig deep to get a thrilling 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 victory against Adil Kalyanpur of Karnataka in the men’s singles match that lasted for more than three hours in scorching heat testing the physical limits of the players.

However, the Olympian utilised his experience in the third set to take the match with an exquisite backhand and move into the next round after Adil saved multiple match points.

In the women’s singles match, top-seed Vaidehee launched her title defence with a win as she defeated her state mate Saily Thakkar 6-2, 6-0 in straight sets to move into the next round of the tournament.