Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) Top seed Ranjeet Virali Murugesan proved too good for teenager Prateek Bhambri as he knocked him down 6-1, 6-2 to enter the quarter-final of the DSCL men’s national tennis at the DLTA stadium here Tuesday.The 23-year-old Ranjeet with his power-packed strokes and big serve unsettled 17-year old-Prateek, whose reckless hitting compounded his agony.

Such was Ranjeet’s hold on the match that his service games hardly faced any challenge from Prateek barring the fourth game of the second set where he saved two break points.

A confident Ranjeet said he is fancying his chances to win the title in the absence of top players.

“My performance is good so far and I have scored easy victories in the two matches. Even today I didn’t have much problem in beating Prateek. He never posed any challenge,” said Ranjeet, who hones his skills in Germany.

“The field is not as strong as it used to be five years ago, so I have a good chance to win.”

In the quarter-final, Ranjeet will meet eighth-seed Arjun Goutham who showed the door to wildcard Palash Tiwari with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

“Arjun will be a strong challenge. But I have beaten him last December, so I am not worried,” Ranjeet said.

In other singles, seventh seed Kamala Kannan overcame a late challenge from Mithun Murali to beat him 6-3, 7-6 (4) to enter the last eight. He meets third seed P.C. Vignesh who sent qualifier Bhishma Desai packing 6-1, 6-0 in 45 minutes.