Favourite Vishnu Vardhan starts off with easy win in Kochi's national ranking tourney

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Top seed Vishnu Vardhan is all set to play the pre-quarterfinals of the Naushad Mather Memorial National Ranking Tennis Tournament in Kochi.
Telangana's Vardhan, bronze medallist at the 2010 Asian Games, defeated Sunil Kumar of Haryana 6/3, 6/4 in his men's singles first round. His teammate Theertha Shasank made second seed Nithin Kumar Sinha of West Bengal earn a 6/2, 7/5 win.
Meanwhile, Karnataka's Deepak A caused an upset with a 7/5, 7/6(3) win over seventh seed Dheeraj Kodancha of Tamil Nadu.
Kerala's Karan Thapa, who was one of the qualifiers, gave a tough fight in his first-round match with Madhya Pradesh's Raghav Jaisinghani before losing 6/4, 7/6(6).
In women's singles, second seed Sonal Patil of Maharashtra eased past Harini of Tamil Nadu, 6/0, 6/0 in her first-round match.