National Tennis C'ship: Top seed Dheeraj, Sandesh move up in qualifiers of Fenesta Open 

New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) Top seed Dheeraj K S began the 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship with a straight sets victory over Hitesh Yalamanchili in the first round of the qualifiers, while Sandesh Kurale produced an upset against 12th seed Fardeen Mohammed at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday. 

Tamil Nadu's Dheeraj stamped his authority in the men's singles match from the beginning and registered a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Hitesh of Telangana to move closer to qualifying for the main draw.

In another exciting first-round clash of the qualifiers, ranked 101 Maharashtra's Sandesh upset 12th seed Fardeen of West Bengal 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets.

India’s largest domestic tennis tournament, being held under the aegis of the All India Tennis Association and Delhi Lawn Tennis Association, is witnessing the participation of exciting talents from various parts of the country fighting for the coveted crowns.

The tournament has seen the participation of some of India’s top tennis stars in the past editions including Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Sania Mirza and Rutuja Bhosale among many others.

Top seeds in the women's singles event, Laxmi Dandu (1) of Telangana and Gujarat's Vidhi Jani (2) received byes in the first round of the qualifiers.

Ranked 300 in India, Vaibhav Charotia of Uttar Pradesh produced one of the performances of the day to upset 12th seed Uttar Pradesh's Arjun Bhati in a three-set thriller 5-7, 6-3, (10-6) in the boys' u-18 singles category. First and second seeds Ojas Mehlawat (Delhi) and Murtuza Huzefa K. (Gujarat) received byes to move into the second round of the qualifiers, respectively.

The girls' u-18 category also saw top seeds, Haryana's Dhatri Dave (1) and Gujarat's Pal Upadhyay getting byes in the first round.

The main draw will be played from September 30 to October 5. The Boys and Girls Under-16 & Under-14 category matches will be played from October 6 to October 12.

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 U16 and U14 singles events will also receive a Tennis scholarship of ₹25,000 each.