Hyderabad: Telangana players ruled the roost in the women’s singles with six of them sealing last-eight berths while the men too performed equally good taking three of the quarterfinal spots in the TSTA AITA Ranking Tennis Tournament being held at the SATS Tennis Complex at Lal Bahadur Stadium here on Monday.
Kalva Likhitha was off to a bad start and lost the first set to Anusha Kondaveeti but made a resounding return in the next two sets to seal a thumping 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
In other matches, Smriti Bhasin faced stiff resistance from Akanksha Nitture on way to a 7-5, 6-4 victory; Sunskruti Damera outplayed Yashaswini Singh Panwar 6-4, 6-3; C. Sravya Shivani eased past Likhitha Landa (AP) 6-3, 6-3 while Sahaja Yamalapally and Y. Sai Dedeepya scored comfortable wins against Deeksha Ajit 6-1, 6-1 and Sonali Jaiswal 6-1, 6-0 respectively.
Of the two non-state players who sealed the quarters spot, Prathiba Prasad Narayan (Karnataka) was made to sweat for the first two sets by Tejasvi Kate (Maharashtra) before the former mustered a 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 win while Ganeshi Aniyaa cantered to 6-2, 6-1 victory over Deeksha Ajit.
Among boys, Krishna Teja Ankam booked a place in the quarters with a last set tie-breaker. The second-ranked player from the State saw off compatriot Anikait Venkat 6-2, 7-6(5) while fellow players Hevanth Kumar and Ajay Prithvik stormed their way into last-eight with 6-3, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-4 wins over Aayush Mintri and T. Vinay Kumar respectively.
Prithvi Sekhar, Sivadeep Kosaraju, Theyjo Oges, Kavin Masilamani and B. Sai Saran Reddy completed the quarterfinals line-up with wins.
Sivadeep Kosaraju defeated Lohith Aksha Bathrinath (TN) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Kavin Masilamani fought back against Guhan Rajan for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win while others bagged straight set wins.
