Siddhant Banthia knocked out fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Suraj Prabodh from the men’s singles event of the Fenesta National Tennis Championship.
Banthia played an all-round game to knock out Prabodh 6-3, 6-1 in his opening round.
“The junior Grand Slam level is equal to India’s men’s circuit. As I am making a transition from junior to senior, the experience of playing at junior Majors has helped me a lot,” said Banthia, who shot to prominence after winning the Road to Wimbledon and then the UK’s Under-14 national championship.
“This championship will test me physically. Today, the biggest plus was my serve. I did not lose many points on my serve. He has a single-handed backhand and that can’t hurt me. The key is self-belief and I have that coming into this tournament,” he said.
Banthia said he is sure of winning the Under-18 doubles title and that’s why he has entered three events this year.
“I am hungry for titles. I won’s miss one, if there is one for taking,” said the Pune boy who is top seed in the Under-18 championship and has moved to the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-3 win over Delhi’s Rohan Mehra.
Ajay Malik did not have luck to move to the next round in men’s singles. The tall Chennai player lost 3-6, 2-6 to former champion and eighth seed Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash.
In women’s singles, fifth seed Humera Shaikh battled past Prathiba P Narayan (KA) 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3 to progress to the second round while sixth seed Ramya Natrajan ousted Prathyusha Rachap 6-3, 6-1.
Local girl Shweta Rana beat Ayushi Tanwar 6-1, 6-4 and Sathwika Sama easily got past Vanshita Pathania 6-1, 6-1.
Other important results
Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Eduard Roger-Vasselin beat Kyle Edmund and Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics in straight sets to enter the second round of China Open.
Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin served up two aces and converted four break points in their 6-2, 7-6(5) victory.
(With inputs from PTI)
