High seeds fall as Puru, Harsh ousted at Beldih Club AITA Tennis Tournament

Jamshedpur, Nov 19: Seeds fall on Day 2 of the ongoing Beldih Club AITA Men’s 1 Lac National Ranking Tennis Tournament 2019, been held at the clay courts of Beldih Club and United Club in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.

Odisha’s Anurag Kumar Saran created the major upset of the day as he took an hour and 50 minutes to tame 3rd seeded Puru Upadhyay of Gujarat in the pre quarter finals today. Saran, a qualifier, took the opening set by a close 6-4 and thereafter played a balanced game in the second which went up to 5-5. Here the experienced Upadhyay got lucky as he increased the pressure on the opponent by catching the net with every little opportunity. Upadhyay, seeded 3 in the draw leveled the match by grabbing the second set by a tough 7-5. In the decider, it was Saran who seemed to be more in form and refused to give up on any shot and eventually won by a long 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. 

Unseeded Abhinansu Borthakur of Bengal, finalist of the 2017 edition of the championship, took less than an hour to outclass 7th seeded Aditya Satpathy of Odisha by an easy 6-3,6-0. Md Fardeen, also from Bengal, proved to be too good for 8th seeded Swostik Satyakam Pradhan of Odisha as the former won by a convincing 6-2,6-2. In another upset of the day, lucky loser Himanshu Maurya of Chattisgarh drubbed 5th seed and state-mate Harsh Khetarpal by a straight 6-4, 6-1 to enter the quarter finals.

In other pre quarterfinal matches V M Ranjeet (TN) (1) beat Asish Sinha (MP) 6-0, 6-3. Vashu Gupta (UP) (6) beat Kanav Goel (WB) 7-5, 6-0. Rohit Rampuria (WB) (4) beat  Raj Jitendra Bagdai (TS) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Anurag Kumar Saran (OD) beat Puru Upadhyay (GJ) (3) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Arghya Das (WB) (2) bt Neel Garud (MP) 6-2, 6-0

Matches will start from 8:30 am tomorrow.