Pune : Unseeded Shabaaz Khan scored a shock straight sets win over Kunal Vazirani in the first round of the All-India Ranking Men’s Tennis Tournament at the Solaris Club here Monday.
Shabaaz was up against eighth seeded Kunal in an all-Maharashtra clash and he made most of the opportunity to score a deserving win. Shabaaz won 6-4, 7-5 to make it to the second round.
Seasoned Nitten Kirrtane too progressed without breaking much sweat as he dispatched Andhra Pradesh’s Taha Kapadia 6-1, 6-4. Kirrtane broke Kapadia twice in the first set before the Andhra player got his game together. But the Pune player broke Kapadia again in the second set to take it 6-4 and the match.
Also winning were Jayesh Pungaliya, who beat Rithvik Anand of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, and Maharashtra’s Haddin Bava who defeated statemate Sahil Gaware 6-2, 6-3.
First round results: 1-Abdullah Shaikh (AP) bt Ashish Mukherjee (MP) 6-2, 6-2; Jayesh Pungaliya (Mah) bt Rithvik Anand (TN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Q-Yuraj Singh (Del) bt Manav Kumar Chakma (Asm) 6-1, 6-3; 5-Tejas Chaukulkar (Mah) bt Rohan Bhatia (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; 3-Nitin Kirtane (Mah) bt Taha Kapadia (AP) 6-1, 6-4; Siddharth Sarthank (Ori) bt Rohit Sarwate (AP) 6-2, 6-2; Haadin Bava (Mah) bt Sahil Gaware (Mah) 6-2, 6-3; 6-Rahul Manoah (TN) bt Jairaj Sirohi (Har) 6-2, 6-3; Shabaaz Khan (Mah) bt 8-Kunal Vazirani (Mah) 6-4, 7-5; Vilasier Khate (Har) bt Osama Shaikh (AP) 7-5, 6-1; Digvijay Singh Mehta (HP) bt Rahul Singh (Dil) 6-2, 6-3; 4-Siddharth Vishwakarma (UP) bt Rohit Rangalani (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; 7-Bhavesh Gaur (MP) bt Rohan Samant (Mah) 6-1, 7-5; Raghavendra Subramanya (Kar) bt Prajeet Oswal (Mah) 6-0, 6-2; 2-Vijay Kannan (TN) bt Siddharth Ponnala (AP) 6-2, 6-3.