Unseeded Arjun Kadhe began his quest for a maiden national title in style with an upset win over sixth seed Lakshit Sood to advance to the second round of the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship here today.
Kadhe broke his Uttar Pradesh opponent in each set to win the opening round match 6-4, 6-4.
Top seed Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash also had a smooth sailing into the second round with a straight-set win over Yogesh Phogat. The Tamil Nadu boy knocked out Phogat 6-4, 6-2 at the R K Khanna Tennis Complex.
In the other first round men's singles matches, Delhi boy Saurabh Singh got the better of Arpit Sharma 6-2, 6-3, while Shaikh Abdullah, who was playing his second match of day after his win in the boys' under-18, thrashed Vidit Vaghela 6-4, 6-0.
Rishab Agarwal also made it to the second round with 6-2, 6-1 win over Rubal Shandilya.
The morning and afternoon sessions saw a number of boys and girls putting up tough fights, which resulted in delaying the original schedule.
The day began Abdullah, the top seed in the boys under-18, taking on Sanil Jagtani of West Bengal. The opening set of the match saw Sanil giving a tough fight to Abdullah but the Bengal boy ran out of steam as the match progressed. Abdullah eventually won the match 7-5, 6-2.
Akhil Kanagaraj faced a stiff challenge in his opening round match against qualifier Faisal Kamal of Rajasthan. Both the boys fought tooth and nail but it was the experience of Akhil that allowed him to prevail over Faisal 6-2, 6-7, 6-2.
In the girls under-18, Mansi Siddare Reddy beat M Arthi 6-3, 6-1, while Bani Singh handed a straight-set defeat to Kanishka C Chawla 6-1, 6-0.
