Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash started his title defence in style as he dispatched Mithun Murali with a relative ease to sail into the second round of men's singles in the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship here today.
Prerna Bhambri, the defending champion in the women's singles, also had an easy opening round against Delhi girl Renu Sharma, who she thrashed 6-0 6-0.
Third seed Jayaprakash defeated Mithun 6-4 6-3 at the R K Khanna Tennis Complex here.
Also moving into the second round of the men's singles were seventh seed Chandril Sood with a 6-3 6-2 win over Ganesh Srinivasan and Kunal Anand, who got the better of Aryan Goveas 6-1 6-2.
Mithun began well against the big serving Mohit but could not continue his performance as the defending champion upped the ante. Mohit broke Mithun in the eighth game.
Mithun lost his serve in the next to give Mohit the opening set and the momentum.
There was no looking back for Mohit from there on and he used booming serves to good effect against an error prone Mithun.
Against Prerna, Renu had a tough time and managed to hold her serve just once in the entire match.
In the boys 18 singles, top seed Vasisht Vinod Cheruki handed a straight set 6-1 6-3 defeat to Siddarth Ponnala.
The second seed Prajwal Dev fought it out in a three setter to beat Abhishek Gaur 6-2 4-6 6-3, while third seed B R Nikshep got the better of Parikshit Somani 6-3 6-4.
