FOURTH seed Pranav Gaikwad from Nagpur blanked Avi Mishra 7-0 to move into Round Two of the MSLTA-NDHTA All India Ranking Super Series Under-16 Tennis Tournament underway at the NDHTA courts in Ram Nagar. In boys section, top three seeds sailed smoothly. Top seed Aaryan Kirtane from Pune beat Chirayu Pinjarkar of Gujarat 7-1; second seed Jeevith defeated Nihit Mudarka of Maharashtra 7-2 while third seed Rishik blanked Taksheel Jambhulkar of Maharashtra. In the girls category, top seed Honey Jumani from Gujarat blanked unseeded Swara Padgilwar 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets to storm into the quarter-finals.

 

Both the players had got walk-overs in the first round matches. Second seed Gujarat’s Falak Mehta defeated Maharashtra’s Ritika Deshpande 6-2, 6-3. Third seed Anika Nair from Pune went past state-mate Devashree Dagwar 6-1, 6-2. In another match, fourth seed Lucknow’s Aditri Singh beat Insiyah Kamal 6-3, 6-3. Sixth seed Aira Agarwal of Maharashtra will take on Honey while Anika will face Parinitha Vattapramb of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Maharashtra’s seventh seed Priyadarshini Parte will face Aditri and Falak will take on Surmayee Sathe of Maharashtra in the quarters. AITA referee Siva Kumar Marada is conducting the tournament. NDHTA officials Dr Sudhir Bhiwapurkar and Vijay Naidu were prominently present. The doubles event will start from Tuesday.