Pune's Rohan Patwardhan put a great effort before advancing with 6-2 5-7 6-2 win over Delhi's Vidhan Vyas, in the pre-quarterfinals of the DES Cup All India Ranking Men's Tennis Tournament at Fergusson College courts here on Tuesday. Joining him were, four other city players including top seed Rohan Gide, Nitin Kirtane, Akash Wagh and second seed Ketan Dhumal. 

South paw Vyas who stole the limelight by upsetting seventh seed Harshvardhan Thirani of West Bengal on Monday, failed to produce the same game against wild card entrant Patwardhan. “He (Vyas) was good with serve and forehand stokes, but I played without any pressure and made him struggle for every point with my strong forehand strokes,” explained Patwardhan. 

After losing the first set, Vyas raised his game and took the match into third set by equalising the score. The decider was dominated by Patwardhan as he eased into next round with 6-2 score. “I used to train at Fergusson College with Amod Wakalkar few years ago, so I was familiar with the courts, which helped me,” he added. Patwardhan, who currently trains with Hemant Bendrey at PYC will now take on Akash Wagh of Bhupathi Tennis Academy in the quarter-final. 

Results: Rohan Ghide bt Rakshay Thakkar 6-1 6-4; Himanshu Mali bt Bhishma Desai 4-6 7-5 6-0; Nitin Kirtane bt Vikas Chauhan 6-2 6-1; Hazari Javed bt Pulkit Mishra 6-4 6-2; Sameer Patwardhan bt Vidhan Vyas 6-2 5-7 6-2; Akash Wagh bt Arman Chaudhary 6-3 6-1; Shahabaz Khan bt Gitesh Awasthi 6-2 6-1; Ketan Dhumal bt Varman Mahender 6-0 6-2. 

Ashish Phadnis/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication