Tags:
Journalism of Courage
New Delhi, October 12: There were upsets galore in the quarterfinals of the DSCL open National tennis championships here today.
Eighth seed Rishi Sridhar handed a humiliating 6-1, 6-3 defeat to top seed Vijay Kannan in just over 50 minutes in men’s singles.
Shruti Dhawan continued her giant-killing run by upsetting fourth seed Sonal Phadke in a two-hour battle in the women’s singles. Shruti Dhawan prevailed 5-4, 4-5, 4-1, 4-0.
Kannan had no answer to the serve-and-volley game of Sridhar, who approached the net more often to get favourable results. Sridhar also returned better in the lop-sided match.
Sridhar raced to a 4-0 lead in the first set, breaking Kannan’s serve in the first and third games, to close the set at 6-1.
Kannan momentarily came back in the second set to take a 3-1 lead but sridhar, who was in a no-nonsense mood, took the next five games in a row to book a place in semi-finals.
In another quarterfinal, which was marked by controversial line calls, defending champion Sunil Kumar beat Vishal Uppal 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in one hour and 25 minutes to reach semi-finals.
Vishal Uppal was ranked higher than the defending champion and was one of the pre-tournament favourites. Uppal lost control at one stage and gave vent to his feelings when a line call went against him.
