Astitva, Harsh in main draw of CLTA meet

Chandigarh: Top seeds Astitva Sodhi of Punjab and Haryana’s Harsh Shandilya progressed to the main rounds of their respective Under-12 and U-18 categories in the CLTA-AITA Championship Series (CS-7) tennis tournament for boys and girls that started at the CLTA Tennis Stadium, Sector 10 here on Saturday.
The qualifying matches for the event will also continue on Sunday before the main draws will be conducted from Monday.
Astitva defeated Anuvrat Hooda of Haryana 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets, while Harsh got the better of unseeded Hardit Singh of Punjab 6-0, 6-0 in another straight sets win.
Manipur’s Bhicky Sagolshem and local lad Anirudh Sangra also advanced into the main draw in boys’ under-18 singles. The 3rd seed Bhicky Sagolshem defeated Vaibhav Saini in a one-sided match 6-0, 6-1. In the other match, 4th seed Anirudh Sangra outplayed Ashwajit Senjam 6-0, 6-1. The second seeded Yagna Pradip Patel of Gujarat also stormed into the main round after defeating Uttarakhand’s Shivang Verma 6-0, 6-2 in straight sets.
The other players who moved into the main draw of u-18 boys’ singles are Tejas Singh, Aayan, Harsh and Chandigarh boy Abhinav Sangra.
In the boys’ under-12 category, unseeded Tanmay Singla of Punjab and Chandigarh’s Nikhil Bansal advanced to the main draw with commanding wins. Tanmay Singla upset 8th seed Jahaan Jolly 6-0, 6-3 in straight sets, while 3rd seed Nikhil Bansal thrashed Aadrian Partap Singh Suri 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets. Another Chandigarh boy Aayan Puri got a walkover from Haryana’s Vivaan Gupta. Ranbir Singh and Mohit Singh also advanced into the main round.