Vishnu Vardhan knocked out by qualifier Mayur

The men's and women's singles top seeds, Vishnu Vardhan and Eetee Maheta, crashed out of the Rs 12-lakh Omkar All India ranking men's and women's tennis championships, at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club (JVPG) on Thursday.

Qualifier Mohit Mayur sent men's No 1 seed Vardhan packing in three sets in a second round match, while Eetee also went down in three sets to unseeded Sowjanya Bavisetti.

London Olympian Vardhan appeared in control of proceedings till an inspired Mayur dug deep to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in just under two hours.

Women’ top seed Eetee was knocked out by Sowjanya after winning the opening set, like Vardhan.

Sowjanya won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In the eagerly-awaited Vardhan-Mayur match-up, it was the India No 4 who stamped his authority in the early part of the match and was rewarded in the eighth game when he broke Mayur's serve before serving out the first set.

After surviving a long opening game in the second set, Mayur steadily began to secure easy holds.

However, the equal effectiveness of Vardhan's serve frustrated him to the extent where he eventually picked up a code violation for flinging his racquet after losing a point.

Mayur's grit finally bore fruit when he earned three break-points while leading 6-5 and sealed the set on his second.

It seemed to swing the momentum well in favour of the underdog who grabbed an early break in the deciding set and won his fifth straight game to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

Vardhan did have a couple of opportunities in game seven but Mayur held on for 5-2 and produced a jittery-free final  service game to close out the match.

Mayur will next face fellow qualifier Tushar Mandlekar, who brushed aside Bruhad Mankad 6-1, 6-0.

Fifth seed P C Vignesh overcame a second-set blip to beat R Suraj Prabodh 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

Women’s third seed Nupur Kaul booked a semi-final berth with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 win over eighth seed Nehel Sahni.