Manish Sureshkumar and Vaishnavi Adkar Sail into Fenesta Open Semis

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI): Tamil Nadu’s Manish Sureshkumar and top seed Vaishnavi Adkar from Maharashtra have successfully advanced to the semifinals of the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship, showcasing remarkable performances in their respective quarterfinals in New Delhi on Thursday.

Manish, a former champion of the event, faced a challenging match against Nitin Kumar Sinha from the Railway Sports Promotion Board. Despite losing the opening set, Manish exhibited resilience and skill to reverse his fortunes, eventually triumphing 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 in a gripping encounter that lasted over three hours at the DLTA Complex.

On the women's side, Vaishnavi Adkar demonstrated her dominance by dispatching Punjab’s Sahira Singh, the seventh seed, with a convincing 6-3, 6-1 victory. Vaishnavi, who is a bronze medallist from the 2025 World University Games, strategically broke Sahira’s serve during pivotal moments in the first set and swiftly secured the second to reach the semifinals with authority.

Continuing the women’s singles action, Karnataka’s Soha Sadiq maintained her impressive form throughout the tournament. The fourth seed navigated through several deuce battles to defeat Haryana’s Aditi Rawat 6-3, 6-2 in a match that lasted one hour and 35 minutes, thereby securing her place in the semifinals.

In another men’s singles quarterfinal, West Bengal's fourth seed Ishaque Eqbal delivered a dominant performance, eliminating Haryana’s seventh seed Ajay Malik with a decisive 6-1, 6-2 victory to move into the last four.

The eventual winners of the tournament will share a prize pool exceeding Rs 21.55 lakh. Additional kit allowances are available for junior categories, with tennis scholarships of Rs 25,000 each set for the winners and runners-up in the U16 and U14 singles events.

Furthermore, the Boys and Girls Under-16 and Under-14 category qualifying and main draw matches are scheduled to be played from October 5 to 11.