Top seeds Laxmi Dandu and Dheeraj KS reached the finals of qualifiers at the 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship. Telangana’s Laxmi dominated the second-round women’s singles match after receiving a bye in the first round of the tournament. She gained an early lead with excellent baseline play, winning 6-2, 6-0 in straight sets against Gujarat’s Mahi Trivedi.
Laxmi will now face Tamil Nadu’s Vitula Velumani for a spot in the tournament’s main draw. Tamil Nadu’s Dheeraj KS maintained his winning momentum, advancing to the finals after defeating Maharashtra’s Pranav Korade in a thrilling match. Dheeraj began positively, winning the first set, but Pranav fought back to take the second set 6-3. The match went into a tie-breaker, where Dheeraj held his nerve to win 10-8, securing his place.
Dheeraj will now face Yash Yadav from Madhya Pradesh for a spot in the main draw. India’s largest domestic tennis tournament, supported by DCM Shriram Ltd., is held under the All India Tennis Association’s aegis at DLTA Complex. The tournament has featured top Indian tennis stars like Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Sania Mirza, and others.
Ojas Mehlawat shines in the U-18 category
In the boys’ U-18 category, Delhi’s top seed Ojas Mehlawat defeated Parag Jain 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets. Ojas will now face Vaibhav Kr Charotia from Uttar Pradesh in the finals of the boys’ U-18 category. Haryana’s Dhatri Dave qualified for the girls’ U-18 main draw after defeating Maharashtra’s Shreya Pathare 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets. Second seed Pal Upadhyay from Gujarat qualified after a hard-fought win against Haryana’s Snigdha Ruhil, 6-3, 5-7, [10-4].
Finals will be played today, and the main draw will take place from September 30 to October 5. Boys and girls U-16 & U-14 category matches will be played from October 5 to October 12. Besides the prestigious titles, winners will receive prize money, with over ₹21.55 lakh total prize pool. The winners and runners-up in U-16 and U-14 singles will receive ₹25,000 each as part of the tennis scholarship.
