AITA meet Chandigarh: Vilasier, Neeraj post wins, enter pre-quarters

Vilasier, the top seed at AITA National Ranking Tennis Championship being held at the CLTA Stadium, Chandigarh, scored a straight-sets 7-5, 6-1 win over Dhananjay Singh

Vilasier Khate and Neeraj Yashpaul moved into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the AITA National Ranking Tennis Championship being held at the CLTA Stadium, Sector 10.

Vilasier, Neeraj reached the pre-quarters AITA National Ranking Tennis Championship being held at the CLTA Stadium, Chandigarh. (AFP)

Vilasier scored a straight-sets 7-5, 6-1 win over Dhananjay Singh. After a competitive opening set that the former managed to edge 7-5, Vilasier found himself in a much stronger position and grabbed an easy second set 6-1 to close out the win.

Second seed Neeraj Yashpaul, meanwhile, also battled past Anuj Malik in a three-set marathon 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Sushant Dabas and Sarthak Suden also advanced into pre-quarterfinals, with the former ousting Gajendra Singh 6-3, 6-3. Other players who moved into pre-quarterfinals included Atharva Sharma, Ajay Kundu, Kartik Saxena and Abhishek Gaur.

Other news in brief:

Fire ravages builder’s Sector-88 office

Mohali A fire broke out at a builder’s Sector-88 office on Monday due to suspected short circuit. Project manager Damanvir Singh said while no one was inside the office at the time, all of the office furniture was gutted. The blaze was brought under control after two hours of operations. Three fire tenders were pressed into service. Officials said after the guard deployed at the office turned on the generator, smoke started emanating from the office. Initially the guard tried to douse the fire, but soon informed the fire department.

Chandigarh Playing in the senior women’s category, Kashvi Garg, Simran and Babita bagged gold medals in the epee, foil and sabre events, respectively, during the 1st Senior State Fencing Championship was conducted by Chandigarh Fencing Association at the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10. Mohit Bhatt, Ravi Sharma and Saurabh, meanwhile, grabbed the gold medals in the epee, foil and sabre events, respectively, in the senior men’s category. The top four men and women players in each category have been selected to participate in the upcoming National meet, scheduled to be held at Pune from March 25 to 28.

Mohali The municipal corporation has purchased two pruning machines, costing ₹47 lakh, to speed up the tree-pruning process, mayor Amarjit Singh Sidhu saod. The mayor added that the company supplying the machines will also maintain them for two years. The total number of machines with MC is now up to five. He added that each of the four zones in the city will be assigned a machine and one machine will be kept for emergency back-up. The mayor, senior deputy mayor Amrik Singh Somal and deputy mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi also inspected the tree pruning exercise.