Sriram Balaji pulled through three rounds of the qualifying event to be seeded No. 1 in the men’s section in the Fenesta National tennis championship that begins at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.
In doing so, the 422nd-ranked Tamil Nadu lad who trains at the Schuettler Waske Tennis-University in Germany has provided the much needed thrust to the often criticised national championship.
With most of the country’s leading players regularly competing in the international circuit around the world, it is not easy for them to be interested in an event at home that does not have international ranking points.
Yet, if you get the equation right, it has been proven that you still can attract quality players, and not just the ones looking for the springboard to launch their career. With the national championship offering Rs. 3 lakh for the winner and Rs. 2 lakh for the runner-up, there is some incentive for the players to spend a week of their quality time.
There is equal prize money for the women apart from a wild card for the $25,000 ITF event that is held concurrently with the men’s Challenger as the Delhi Open.
The seedings: Men: 1. Sriram Balaji, 2. Vishnu Vardhan, 3. Mohit Mayur, 4. V.M. Ranjeet, 5. Anvit Bendre, 6. Sidharth Rawat, 7. Shaikh Abdullah, 8. Siddharth Vishwakarma.
Women: 1. Snehadevi Reddy, 2. Rishika Sunkara, 3. Dhruthi Venugopal, 4. Prerna Bhambri, 5. Sowjanya Bavisetti, 6. Eetee Maheta, 7. Sai Samhitha, 8. Riya Bhatia.
Under-18: Boys: 1. Aryan Goveas, 2. B.R. Nikshep, 3. Ishaque Eqbal, 4. Parikshit Somani, 5. Nitin Kumar Sinha, 6. Dhruv Sunish, 7. Alex Solanki, 8. Manish Sureshkumar.
Girls: 1. Zeel Desai, 2. Sathwika Sama, 3. Mahak Jain, 4. Shivani Ingle, 5. Jennifer Luikham, 6. Vanshika Sawhney, 7. Sabhyata Nihalani, 8. Lalita Devarakonda.
The results: Qualifying event: Third and final round: Men: Sriram Balaji bt Taha Kapadia 6-1, 6-4; Alex Solanki bt B.R. Nikshep 6-4, 6-2; Lakshit Sood bt Gokul Suresh 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Aryan Goveas bt Raghav Jaisinghania 6-0, 6-2; Digvijay Singh Mehta bt Ajay Yadav 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; Garvit Batra bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa 6-2, 6-3; Udaya Kumar Reddy bt Paras Dahiya 6-4, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Sahil Gaware 6-7[3], 6-3, 6-1.
Women: Shivika Burman bt Harshita Chugh 6-0, 6-0; Aarja Chakraborty bt Sahan Shetty 6-2, 6-1; Dakshata Girishkumar bt Arushi Bhasin 7-6[6], 6-3; Simran Kejriwal bt Priyanka Kalita 7-5, 6-1; Mihika Yadav bt Yubrani Banerjee 6-1, 6-2.
Under-18: Boys: Mingki Talom bt Vipul Mehta 7-5, 7-5; Aditya Vasisht bt Shubham Malhotra 6-11, 6-1; Sansidh Kommaraju bt Paranjay Kukreti 6-1, 6-2; R. Ramakrishnan bt Sabrang Sandal 6-4, 6-1; Drona Walia bt Suyash Gupta 6-3, 6-2; Ashutosh Tiwari bt Karan Bhalla 6-2, 6-2; Varun Venkat bt Apuroop Patllola Reddy 6-2, 6-2; Sahaj Somani bt Himanshu Rawat 6-2, 6-3.
Girls: Lasya Patnaik bt Shefali Arora 6-1, 6-2; Seerat Kaur Pannu bt Misha Sood 6-2, 7-6[1]; Tanisha Kashyap bt Damini Hoon 6-1, 6-0; Sanya Singh bt Sonashe Bhatnagar 6-1, 6-2; Anu Verma bt Kiran Kalkal 6-3, 2-6, 6-1; Advaita Saravanan bt Sravya Shivani 7-5, 6-2; Avishka Gupta bt Bhumika Srihari 6-7[4], 6-0, 6-3; Bhakti Parwani bt Vanshika Choudhary 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. — Special Correspondent
