Seeded players cruise into pre-quarters

Top seed Rohan Bopanna of Karnataka shrugged off a late challenge by unheralded Nipul Gupta as all the seeded players in both the men and women's singles cruised into the pre-quarter finals in the Indian Oil-Servo Senior national grasscourt tennis championship at the South Club in Kolkata on Monday.

Fresh from his success at the ITF men's Futures tournament in Delhi, the 22-year-old Bopanna started off in brilliant fashion but seemed to lose his rhythm in the second set before carving out a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Gupta in a tussle which lasted about 50 minutees.

Bopanna, who claimed his maiden international singles title by defeating Uzbek Dmitri Mazur in the final of the Futures tournament on Saturday, will take on the talented Sunil Kumar Sipaeya in the next round.

Second seed and Maharashtra boy Nitin Kirtane, who has 123 points and is the fourth ranked Indian, also opened his campaign in style with a facile 6-1, 6-2 verdict over Kedar Tembe, in what turned out to be a rather lop-sided contest.

Third seeded Vinod Sridhar of Tamil Nadu had no difficulty in brushing aside the challenge of qualifier Satirth Patnaik of Orissa with an easy 6-1, 6-1 scoreline.

In the ladies section, top seed Radhika Tulpule of Maharashtra and second seed and statemate Sonal Phadke moved into the pre-quarter-finals in contrasting styles.

While Tulpule whipped local girl Pooja Mitra with a ruthless 6-0, 6-0 score, Phadke seemed to struggle a little bit before suppressing local girl Ragini Vimal 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).