Kannan, Jayalakshmi win easily

The top seeds in all four categories scored straight set victories to advance to the quarter-final stage of DSCL Open National tennis championships in Delhi on Wednesday.

Men's top seed Vijay Kannan defeated Kedar Shah 6-3, 6-3, in a match that lasted just over an hour.

Shah hastened his defeat by trying to go for outright winners. In the process he committed too many unforced errors. Kannan controlled the match right from the word go and broke Shah's serve in the seventh and ninth games to win the first set 6-3.

In the second set, Kannan again broke Shah in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. The seventh game tested the nerves of both players as Shah saved three game points to force deuce and raised some hopes of a comeback. However, Kannan held his nerve to finish off the set and match at 6-3 and set up a quarter-final meeting with eighth seed R Sridhar, who beat R Bopanna 6-4, 6-1.

In the women's section, top seed Sai Jayalakshmi made light work of Rati Kumar in one hour and 10 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals. She won 4-1, 4-2, 4-0.

In another interesting second round match, US-based Jyotshna Vasisht lost to Shruti Dhawan in a thrilling five set encounter that lasted two hours and 13 minutes.

Jyotshna got off to a flying start, winning the first two sets 4-1, 4-0. In an effort to finish off the match, however, she committed too many unforced errors and Shruti seized the opportunity to take the third and forth sets 4-2, 4-0 respectively.

Jyotshna tried to make a comeback in the decider but Shruti, by then, had grown in confidence and allowed no room for it as she won 5-3.

Second seed Rushmi Chakravorthi defeated Sania Mirza for a place in the quarters and remained on course for a possible final showdown with Jayalakshmi. Rushmi won 4-2, 5-3, 4-2.

Shalini Thakur continued her fine run upsetting fifth seed Arathi Venkatraman 1-4, 4-0, 2-4, 4-2, 4-1. The match lasted two hours and 30 minutes as none of the players took the initiative to step up the pace.

Liza Pereira, who ousted third seed Arachna Venkatraman in the first round on Tuesday, also advanced to the last eight stage with a 4-1, 1-4, 4-2, 3-5, 4-0 victory over Yamini Thukkaindi.

Among other second round matches played on Wednesday, sixth seed Mega Vakharia eased into the quarter-finals with a 4-1, 4-1, 4-1 drubbing of Geeta Manohar, while seventh seed Radhika Tulpule made the round of 8 with a 5-4, 5-3, 4-0 win over Harsimran Bedi.