Top three seeds through to quarters

Women's top three seeds, Eetee Maheta, Natasha Palha and Nupur Kaul enjoyed a smooth passage into the singles quarter-finals of the Omkar All India Ranking men's and women's tennis championship at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club (JVPG) on Wednesday.

There was, however, agony for fourth seed Tarrannum Handa who went down in straight sets to an inspired Sharmada Balu and sixth seed Damini Sharma who was upset by qualifier Nithyaraj Baburaj, also in straight sets. Maheta led the way with a comfortable 6-2 6-1 win over Victoria Chehal while Palha was just as impressive in her 6-0 6-3 rout of Jeni Patel. Third seed Kaul, effectively playing her first match of the tournament having had a walkover in the first round, showed no sign of any rustiness, making short work of Shehnaz Singh, sealing the tie 6-0 6-1. Results: Women's singles (pre-quarterfinals): 1-Eetee Maheta bt Victoria Chehal 6-2 6-1; Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Likitha Shetty 6-1 6-2; Sharmada Balu bt 4-Tarrannum Handa 6-3 6-2; Nithyaraj Baburaj bt 6-Damini Sharma 6-4 7-6 (2); 8-Nehel Sahni bt Supriya Malaya 7-5 7-5; 3-Nupur Kaul bt Shehnaz Singh 6-0 6-1; 7-Amrita Mukherjee bt Treta Bhattacharyya 6-1 6-3; 2-Natasha Palha bt Jeni Patel 6-0 6-3. Men's singles (pre-quarterfinals): 3-Rohan Gide bt Arpit Sharma 7-5 6-0; 6-Saurav Sukul bt Ajai Selvaraj 6-2 6-2.

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