National Tennis C'ship 2024: Rethin, Vaidehee crowned champions at 29th Fenesta Open 

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Unseeded Rethin Pranav R. S. of Tamil Nadu and top-seeded Vaidehee Chaudhari of Gujarat extended their winning run to clinch the titles in their respective categories at the 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship held at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday. 

Rethin, who entered the main draw as the lucky loser in the qualifiers, played a thrilling three-set final to defeat Nitin Kumar Sinha of Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the men’s singles category, while Vaidehee beat young sensation Maaya Revathi R. (Tamil Nadu) 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets to win the Fenesta Open women’s singles title for the second time in her career.

The winners received glittering trophies as the ceremony was attended by Saket Jain, Executive Director and Business Head of Fenesta Building Systems (a division of DCM Shriram Ltd.) and Rohit Rajpal (President, DLTA), Balram Singh from DLTA and Prerna Bhambri (Four-time champion and Treasurer, DLTA). Para-athlete and a silver medallist at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, Pranav Soorma was also present at the venue to motivate the athletes.

The 17-year-old Rethin began the final with accurate shots along the baseline, quickly taking a 4-1 lead in the first set before Nitin won three back-to-back games to level the score at 4-4. Rethin then broke his opponent’s serve to grab the set. Nitin refused to go down easily and lost only two games in the second set. The third set saw a tough contest in the beginning as scores were level at 2-2, Rethin, then upped the ante and won four games on the trot to win the final.

Earlier, the women's singles final saw a contest of big rallies that lasted more than 1 hour and 30 minutes. Maaya started the match positively and bagged the first game before Vaidehee came roaring back and won three games in a row to take a 3-1 lead.

She then lost a game but did not lose momentum, taking a 5-2 lead with her sublime baseline shots. Maaya won one more game to bring the score to 5-3. Vaidehee then broke her opponent's serve to win the first set.

Maaya struggled to find her feet in the second set as Vaidehee continued the onslaught of ferocious forehands. The player from Gujarat broke Maaya's serve multiple times and took a 4-0 lead before the 15-year-old fought back to win three games in a row. However, Vaidehee denied her opponent a chance to level the match and won the next game to clinch the title.

In a thrilling boys U-18 final, Karnataka’s Aradhya Kshitiz defeated Shanker Heisnam of Manipur 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 to grab the title. The girls' U-18 title went to Maharashtra’s Prisha Shinde who got the better of Diya Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 in a thrilling final match.

Besides the prestigious titles, the winners will be awarded prize money with a total prize pool of over Rs 21.55 lakh and Kit Allowance in the junior categories up for grabs. The winners and runners-up in the U-16 and U-14 singles events will also receive a Tennis scholarship of ₹25,000 each.

The boys and girls U-16 & U-14 category qualifying and main draw matches will be played from October 5 to 12.