NATIONAL TENNIS | Riya Bhatia squeezes past Yubrani Banerjee

Riya Bhatia fought her way into the semifinals of the National tennis championship in Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Second seed and former champion Riya Bhatia had to be at her fiery best to wriggle her way past the free-stroking Yubrani Banerjee 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) in the women’s quarterfinals of the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Riya, who was ranked a career-best 338 in the world in 2020, relies a lot on her power play. She was dictating the flow of the match when she led 6-3, 2-0, but lost her way thereafter.

A superb counter puncher, Yubrani matched Riya stroke for stroke, especially in the decider, when she raced to a 5-3 lead. Riya had to be at her fighting best and turned the match around for a memorable victory.

In the semifinals, Riya will play the 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran, who has won six matches in a row, including three in the qualifying event, by dropping an overall average of four games per match.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Vaidehi Chaudhari and Pooja Ingale.

In the men’s section, lucky loser Rethin Pranav eased past the giant killer Yash Chaurasia for the loss of four games. He will face Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam in the semifinals.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Vishnu Vardhan and Nitin Kumar Sinha.

The results (quarterfinals): Men: Vishnu Vardhan bt Bushan Haobam 6-3, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-3, 6-4; Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Keerthivassan Suresh 6-3, 6-1; Rethin Pranav bt Yash Chaurasia 6-1, 6-3.

Women: Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Aditi Rawat 6-1, 6-1; Pooja Ingale bt Akanksha Nitture 6-4, 6-2; Maaya Rajeshwaran bt Humera Baharmus 6-2, 7-6(2); Riya Bhatia bt Yubrani Banerjee 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5).

Under-18: Boys: Aradhya Kshitij bt Vineeth Mutyala 6-0, 7-6(5); Karan Thapa bt Smit Patel 6-4, 6-4; Varun Verma bt Debasis Sahoo 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(3); Shanker Heisnam bt Aashravya Mehra 7-6(2), 6-7(8), 6-0.

Girls: Sejal Bhutada bt Aakruti Sonkusare 6-4, 6-1; Diya Ramesh bt Aishwarya Jadhav 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Prisha Shinde bt Mahika Khanna 2-6, 6-4, 6-0; Anandita Upadhyay bt Danica Fernando 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.