New Delhi, Jan 6 (NationPress) The top seed and local star Senthil Kumar secured a seamless straight sets victory against Japan's Eito Komada, while Varun Verma triumphed over seventh seed Ilya Maltsev to advance to the second round of the boys' category in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) J300 tournament at the DLTA Complex on Monday.

Starting the season's first competition, Senthil won the opening set effortlessly but faced some challenge from his Japanese opponent before emerging victorious with a score of 6-3, 6-4.

In stark contrast, Varun had to battle hard for a tightly contested 7-5, 7-5 win over Maltsev, as both players showcased exceptional tennis on court number six.

Also moving on to the second round were Arnav Paparkar and Samrath Sahita, ensuring that at least four Indian players progressed in this junior tournament offering 300 ranking points. Arnav bested a seeded opponent, defeating Turkey's Kerem Yilmaz with a score of 6-1, 6-4, while Samrath won against Alan Aiukhanov with an identical scoreline.

However, it was a tough day for other home players such as Rian Sharma, Aarav Chawla, and Shanker Heisnam. Shankar struggled against eighth seed Roman Kharlamov, who claimed victory with a score of 6-1, 6-2, while Aarav fell to Korea's Hyeon Seok Seo with a score of 6-2, 6-1. Rian put forth a strong effort against the Korean fourth seed Donghyun Hwang but ultimately exited the tournament with a score of 5-7, 2-6 in the first round. Other notable winners included American players Roshan Santhosh and Alexey Shibaev.

In the girls' singles, there was limited success for India, with only Rishitha Reddy Basireddy and Aishwarya Jadhav securing wins, while three other players were unable to advance past the first round.

Basireddy had to fight hard to edge past Kazakhstan's Eva Korysheva with a score of 7-6(4), 6-3, while Aishwarya displayed a strong performance in her 6-2, 6-3 victory over Daria Koreshkova. Unfortunately, Riya Sachdeva, Aishi Bisht, and Mahika Khanna could not progress further.