NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 :

Two teenagers from Hyderabad, qualifier Afreen Jahan and S Punam Reddy secured their biggest career wins yet and sent the top two seeds, Liza Pereira and Sai Jayalakshmy, packing from the women's draw on a chilly day at the DSCL Open National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

Delhi left-hander and the top junior on view here Sanaa Bhambri joined the assault on seeds when she disposed off No. 3 Archana Venkatraman 7-5, 6-3 late on the day on which upsets featured most prominently and took some of the sheen away from the quality on display in the men's match between teenagers Divij Sharan and Tushar Liberhaan.

The top two men's seeds Vinod Sridhar and Vishal Punna were not threatened but No. 4 Ajay Ramaswami (Maharashtra) was not so fortunate.

Teenaged qualifier Sanam K Singh (Chandigarh) first made the fourth-seeded player wait while he himself recovered after his under-18 pre-quarterfinal and then secured a victory in three sets.

The bespectacled Afreen Jahan , 16-year-old junior college student, rallied from the loss of the first set tie-break to beat Maharashtra's top-seeded Liza Pereira 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2 in over two hours while the left-handed Punam Reddy shocked No. 2 Sai Jayalakshmy 7-5, 7-5. Punam Reddy will now meet another Tamil Nadu player Samrita Sekhar in the round of eight.
I never thought I would lose, Afreen Jahan said after running down nearly every ball that an off-colour Liza Pereira managed to send across the court. She produced some clear winners from the backcourt, egging herself on to a quarterfinal clash with fifth-seeded Shruti Dhawan (Chandigarh).

The defending champion and No.1 Vinod Sridhar (Tamil Nadu) was in his element as he handed out a double bagel to qualifier and State-mate R Narendran while No. 2 Vishal Punna (Andhra Pradesh) beat back a late surge by Vijayendra Laad (Maharashtra) 6-3, 7-6 (3).

One of the best contests of the day was the men's pre-quarterfinal between wild card entrant Divij Sharan (Delhi) and Tusha r Liberhaan (Chandigarh). The teenagers are reckoned to be among the brightest prospects and expected to carry their on-court rivalry for years to come. The left-handed Divij Sharan won 6-2 in the third set to take up a quaterfinal slot against Maharashtra's third-seeded Kedar Tembe.

Delhi's Gurmehar Singh , son of former India hockey captain Ajitpal Singh, rallied to beat eighth-seeded Parantap Chaturvedi in three sets to set up a quarterfinal clash with Vishal Punna. Gurmehar, who had beaten former National grasscourt champion Vasudeva Reddy in three sets in the opening round, displayed tenacity and strokeplay of quality.

The Dubai-based Navdeep Singh drew a lot of attention as he slipped past top-seeded Rupesh Roy into the boy's under-18  quarterfinals. Divij Sharan, fancied to reach the final from the bottom half of the draw,  had an easy time in clinching a straight set victory over Jitin Bishnoi.

In the girl's draw, Parul Goswami defeated eighth-seeded Meghna Paritala in straight sets but for those who watched the Delhi girl beat Sheetal Goutham in the women's first round on Tuesday, the result was not a surprise. The other seven seeds took their appointed places in the quarterfinals.

The results:

Men's singles (pre-quarterfinals):

• Vinod Sridhar beat R Narendran6-0, 6-0;
• Somdev Dev Verman beat Gursharan Singh 6-3, 6-1;
• Kedar Tembe beat Saurav Panja 6-1, 6-4;
• Divij Sharan beat Tushar Liberhaan 6-4, 4-6, 6-2;
• Kamala Kannan beat Amod Wakalkar 6-4, 6-3;
• Sanam K Singh beat Ajay Ramaswami 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4;
• Gurmehar Singh beat Parantap Chaturvedi 2-6, 6-2, 6-3;
• Vishal Punna beat Vijayendra Laad 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Women's singles (pre-quarterfinals):

• Afreen Jahan beat Liza Pereira 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2;
• Shruti Dhawan beat Ragini Vimal 6-1, 6-2;
• Ankita Bhambri beat Preeti Subramanium 6-0, 6-1; 
• Parul Goswami beat Anupama Rajur 6-4, 6-2;
• Lata Assudani beat Kartiki Bhatt 6-2, 6-0;
• Sanaa Bhambri beat Archana Venkatraman 7-5, 6-3;
• Samrita Sekar beat Geeta Manohar 7-5, 6-1;
• S Punam Reddy beat 2 Sai Jayalakshmy 7-5, 7-5.

Boys under-18 singles (pre-quarterfinals):

• Navdeep Singh beat Rupesh Roy 6-0, 5-7, 6-4;
• J Vishnuvardhan beat Vivek Shokeen 4-6, 6-2, 6-2;
• Saurabh Kohli beat Aditya Madkekar 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3;
• Siddharth Gulati beat Syed Rahil 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4);
• Sanam K Singh beat Kaushik Raju 7-6 (5), 6-7 (8), 6-3;
• Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Tejasvi Rao 6-4, 6-1;
• Sumit Prakash Gupta beat Anshuman Dutta 6-0, 6-4;
• Divij Sharan beat Jitin Bishnoi 6-1, 6-2.

Girls under-18 singles (pre-quarterfinals):

• Sanaa Bhambri beat Swetha G Kakhandki 6-1, 6-1;
• Kartiki Bhatt beat Krishmi Chheda 6-4, 6-0;
• S Punam Reddy beat Prerna Myrthy 6-1, 6-0;
• Vandana Murali beat Vishaka Sheoran 6-1, 7-6 (5);
• Parul Goswami beat 8 Meghna Paritala 6-2, 6-4;
• Sandri Gangotri beat Parija Maloo 7-5, 6-3;
• Preeti Subramanium beat Varsha Shivshankar 6-0, 7-5;
• Madura Ranganathan beat Sandhya Nagraj 6-0, 6-3.