Goveas, Anand knock out seeded rivals to enter last 8

Mumbai’s Aryan Goveas and Delhi’s Kunal Anand recorded upset victories to enter the men’s singles quarter-finals of Rs 13 lakh AITA Ranking Anirudh Desai JVPG Tennis Tournament here on Wednesday. 

Shaking off a sluggish start, Goveas outplayed fourth seed Suraj Prabodh of Karnataka 1-6 6-4 6-2, while Delhi’s Kunal Anand, capitalising on some unforced errors from Siddharth Rawat, ousted the second seed 7-6 (3) 6-7 (5) 6-2.

Goveas will now clash with no. 8 seed Jayesh Pungaliya, who got the better of Rajasthan’s Arpit Sharma 6-3 6-1, while Anand awaits the winner of the clash between sixth seed Shaikh Abdulla of AP and statemate Sai Saran Reddy. It was smooth sailing for the top seeds in the women’s pre-quarters with No.1 seeded Natasha Palha of Goa and second seed Sharmadda Baluu of Karnataka advancing into the last eight with straight set wins. Also progressing into the quarters was third seed Samhitha C Sai of Tamil Nadu and 4th seed Amrita Mukherjee of West Bengal. 

Goveas was broken twice in the first set against Prabodh, failing to find his rhythm. However, he began solidly in the second, holding serve and then breaking Prabodh in the second for the crucial lead. Games went with serves thereafter, with Goveas serving out the set at 6-4. The third set saw Goveas attacking Prabodh’s serve and breaking him twice. Playing a serve and volley game, Goveas also held with ease to take a 4-0 lead.