Vinod Sridhar extended

Men's singles top seed Vinod Sridhar and his women's counterpart Manisha Malhotra prevailed over their opponents in contrasting styles to move into the second round of the National grasscourt tennis championships in Calcutta on Tuesday.

Sridhar's weakness on grass came to the fore as he had to draw on his reserves to edge past qualifier R Narendran 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-2, while Maharashtra girl Malhotra had a relatively easy outing against Samrita Sekhar, coasting to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory in their first round matches.

Women's title holder and sixth seed Radhika Tulpule of Maharashtra breezed past local girl Reedhina Parekh 6-2, 6-3, but second seed Sonal Phadke survived a few anxious moments before carving out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Karnataka's Goutam Sheetal to stay afloat in the tournament.

Vinod Sridhar, who was sent packing in the second round by his Tamil Nadu mate Rishi Sridhar in the last edition of the championships, faced stiff resistance from the much lower-ranked Narendran. The top seed won the first set in a tie- break, but Narendran came back strongly, breaking Sridhar in the crucial ninth game and then retained serve in the next to win the set 6-4.

However, the qualifier lost steam in the decider and dropped serve in the sixth and eighth games to bow out of the competition after a two-hour-long spitited fight.