Rishabh eases into 2nd round

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 13 

Chandigarh’s Rishabh Sharda downed Deepender Grewal of Haryana 6-4 6-1 to enter the second round of the boys singles in the 26th MCC National Junior Clay Court tennis championship in Chennai on Monday. 

Haryana lads had a mixed day as Ajay Malik registered a 7-5 6-1 win over Madhya Pradesh’s Arthav Neema, but Nitin Jaipal Singh lost to D Wadhwa of Delhi 3-6 4-6. Another Haryana player, Divesh Gahlot humbled Karnataka’s Sanjith Devineni 6-1 6-3.

Top-seed Megh Bhargav Patel of Gujarat also sailed into the second round with a facile 6-2 6-3 win over Delhi’s Shivank Bhatnagar. Fourteenth seed VM Sandeep of Tamil Nadu beat Gujarat’s Aman Patel in straight sets, while Punjab’s Dhruv Tangri went down fighting to 12th seed Aaryan Mehul Zaveri of Gujarat.

Tangri lost the opening set 4-6, but clawed his way back into the match with a 7-6(1) win the second set. He fought hard in the third set before losing 5-7 to make an early exit from the competition.    

Earlier, Kundana Sri Bandaru, Mridula Palanivel of Tamil Nadu and P Hitesh, Krishna T Raja and Sukunthan Elangeswaran also qualified for the main draw.

1st round 

Boys singles: Megh Bhargav Kumar Patel bt Shivank Bhatnagar (Del) 6-2 6-3, Yeswanth Loganathan (TN) bt Fardeen Qumar (Raj) 2-6 6-3 6-2, Atharva Sharma (Mah) bt Rajesh Kannan RS (TN) 7-5 7-6(3), Aaryan Mehul Zaveri (Guj) bt Dhruv Tangri (Pun) 6-4 6-7(1) 7-5, D Wadhwa (Del) bt Nitin Jaipal Singh (Hry) 6-3 6-4, Rishabh Sharda bt Deepender Grewal (Hry) 6-4 6-1, Subash Paramasivam (TN) bt Amandeep Singh Baha (Del) 6-4 4-6 6-2, Sandeep VM (TN) bt Aman B Patel (Guj) 6-3 6-3, Divesh Gahlot (Hry) bt Sanjith Devineni (Kar) 6-1 6-3, Aryan Ashwath Pathange (Kar) bt Oges Theyjo J (TN) 6-0 6-7(5) 7-6(4), Ajay Malik (Hry) bt Arthav Neema (MP) 7-5 6-1