Mumbai: In the most exciting match of the day, third seed S Darbha had to dig deep before getting the better of a fighting Rushabh Mehta ot move into the third round of the men’s 40+ singles of the Taste’L GSTA S200 ITF Mumbai 2021, in association with L&T Mutual Fund, Practennis, here, on Tuesday.
Darbha had to win two tie-breakers before seeing off Mehta’s challenge 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4).
It was plain sailing for top seed Aditya Khanna and second seed Vishal Badri, who recorded straight set victories to enter the quarter-finals of the men’s 35+ singles.
While Khanna got past Sunny Singh 6-2, 6-0, Badri hardly broke a sweat before packing off Nitesh Rungta 6-1, 6-0. In the only upset of the day, unseeeded Girish Mishra defeated R Pandey 6-4, 6-4 in a close encounter.
It was a similar tale in the 40+ category with the top seeds cruising ahead with comfortable wins, but competition is expected to hot up in the quarter-finals, when the top players, among them names like Nitin Kirrtane, meet.
In the 50+ category second seed Panwar Singh overcame a slow start before rallying to win 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 against Biswajit Roy.
Home favourite D Ramarao of Practennis put up a strong fight before going down to the top seed Govind Kumar 4-6, 6-4, 4-6 in the men’s 70+ category.
Results
Men’s 35+ (3rd round) A Khanna (1) bt S Singh 6-2, 6-0; R Datta (5) bt S Duryodhan 6-0, 6-1; G Mishra bt R Pandey (4) 6-4, 6-4; A Selvaraj bt R Shaih 6-0, 6-3; V Sirpual bt V Parakunnil 6-2, 6-2; V Badri bt N Rungta 6-1, 6-0.
Above 40 years: N Choudhary (1) bt Balraj D 6-0, 6—0; J Arphuthraj bt A Sharma 6-2, 7-5; J Jetly bt K Parekh 6-4, 601; S Darbha (3) bt R Mehta 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4); T Amit (2) br M Shinde 6-1, 6-0; AShinde bt K Rawat 6-3, 6-2.
Above 50: T Thongbam bt B Modi 6-0, 6-1; P Singh (2) bt B Roy 1-6, 6-2, 6-1; B Akut (9) bt S Ashar 6-2, 6-3; V Rahul (7) bt A Dikey 6-1, 6-1.
