Arjun Kadhe has been seeded No. 1 and drawn to play former National champion V.M. Ranjeet in the first round of the National hard court tennis championship to be played at Tennis Project, Baliawas, from Tuesday.
Defending champion Niki Poonacha is seeded second and has a tricky opener against Faisal Qamar.
In the women’s event, Vaidehi Chaudhari and Shrivalli Bhamidipaty are the top two seeds. Four-time National champion Prerna Bhambri, the fourth seed, will meet Niditra Rajmohan.
Even though the total prize money will only be ₹10,00,000, it has been an admirable initiative by the Haryana Tennis Association to fill the void caused by the pandemic. The Fenesta National championship is likely to resume in October.
The seedings:
Men: 1. Arjun Kadhe, 2. Niki Poonacha, 3. Ishaque Eqbal, 4. Paras Dahiya, 5. Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam, 6. Suraj Prabodh, 7. Kunal Anand, and 8. Prithvi Sekhar.
Women: 1. Vaidehi Chaudhari, 2. Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, 3. Yubarani Banerjee, 4. Prerna Bhambri, 5. Sai Samhitha, 6. Soha Sadiq, 7. Arthi Muniyan, and 8. Akanksha Nitture.
The results (qualifying singles final round):
Men: Vivek Gautam bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-2, 0-1 retd.; Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Karan Singh 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; Alex Solanki bt Anurag Agarwal 6-2, 6-2; Parikshit Somani bt Bikramjeet Singh Chawla 7-5, 6-4; Fardeen Qamar bt Udit Kamboj 6-2, 6-3; Shanshank Theertha bt Dheeraj Srinivasan 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; Chinmaya Dev Chauhan bt Jagmeet Singh 7-6(6), 7-6(2); Lohith Bathrinath bt Rohan Mehra 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4.
Women: Pooja Ingale bt Niyati Kukreti 7-6(1), 6-3; Renne Singla bt Nandini Dixit 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; Anaam Almas bt Bunty Chongtham 6-2, 1-6, 6-4; Smriti Bhasin bt Yashaswini Panwar 6-2, 6-1; Niditra Rajmohan bt Medhavi Singh 6-2, 4-6, 7-5; Sudipta Senthilkumar bt Rutuparna Choudhary 6-3, 6-2; Gayatri Menon bt Ishwari Matere 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Adithi Are bt Ritu Ohlyan 6-0, 6-1.