Seeds have it easy on rain-marred day

NEW DELHI: The rain brought relief on Tuesday. After the heat and humidity, the showers cooled the temperature and had many smiling, an exception being the players

NEW DELHI: The rain brought relief on Tuesday. After the heat and humidity, the showers cooled the temperature and had many smiling, an exception being the players at the Fenesta National Tennis Championship, who had to scurry for cover.

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Six first-round women’s singles matches remained unfinished as the second spell of rain washed away all hope of play at the DLTA Complex. The organisers waited till 7.30pm in the hope the sky would clear, but the rain gods had other plans.

Women’s top seed Dhruthi Venugopal and Mihika Yadav’s match was left hanging at a crucial juncture with the scoreboard reading 7-6(3), 1-6, 5-4 in Venugopal’s favour. Second seed Rishika Sunkara was down 0-5 in the first set against Shweta Rana before rain upset the day’s schedule. Earlier in the afternoon, men’s top seed Vishnu Vardhan had an easy outing against Sivadeep Kosaraju. The former Davis Cup player eased into the second round with a resounding 6-0, 6-3 victory.

The other seeds too didn’t face much trouble. Second seed Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash and VM Ranjeet, the third seed, beat Abhinansu Borthakur 6-4, 6-3 and Rishi Reddy 6-3, 6-2 respectively to ease into the second round.