National Grass Court Tennis: Top seed Myneni in semis

Kolkata : Men’s top seed Saketh Myneni and women’s second seed Ankita Raina continued their good run entering the semi-finals of the singles events in the Indian Jute National Grass Court Tennis Championships here Thursday.

In the day’s opening match at the centre court, Myneni secured his position in the semis overcoming a tough challenge by seventh seeded Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash of Tamil Nadu 7-5, 6-4.

Myneni broke his opponent at the crucial 11th game of the match when the score was levelled at 5-5, followed by first, third and seventh game of the second set, hitting 14 aces on his way to victory.

“I played quite well, he (Mohit) played some good shots at certain points. (I) like to get pushed up of the court and get back in, so was trying to make sure my aggression gets going into the match…overall it’s a fabulous day,” Myneni said.

In the ladies singles, Ankita of Gujarat won her pre-semifinal match easily against qualifier Sansitha Nandkumar 6-1, 6-0.

In other matches, veteran Suresh Krishna, seeded second, won his quarterfinal encounter after losing the first set to Maharastra’s Shawbaaz Khan 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4.

Third seed Rusmi Chakarvarthi won her tie against local girl Treta Bhattacharya 7-5, 6-4.

Third seed (men) V. Permamallur beat fifth seeded Saurav Sakul in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. Unseeded 17-year-old Amrita Mukherjee of Bengal moved into the semi-finals beating Vaniya Dangwal 6-4, 6-4.