NEW DELHI, October 6 (www.dsclopentennis.com) - Left-handed Nitin Kirtane, the oldest player in the men's draw, forced the spotlight to be on trained on him with a straight set win over fifth-seeded VM Ranjeet as he sailed into the men's singles quarterfinals at the 13th DSCL Open National Tennis Championship at the DLTA Complex here today.

Top-seeded Aqeel Khan enjoyed a quick workout on court as he toyed with Mohammed Yasser Arafat on his way to the round of eight where he will meet the sixth seed Ravishankar Pathanjali. The other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw is a mouth-watering battle between two of India's top juniors - No. 8 Karan Rastogi and Tushar Liberhan.

Kirtane, the 31-year-old left-hander from Pune, combined guile and skill to upstage Ranjeet, who turned 19 last week. The Tamil Nadu youth will have learnt a few lessons on court craft and the optimisation of skills during his contest. Ranjeet's exit meant that No. 2 Vinod Sridhar is the only seeded player left in the lower half of the draw.

Kirtane, who won the last of his three National titles in 2000, will meet Andhra Pradesh's 17-year-old J Vishnuvardhan for a place in the semifinals. The gangling Vishnuvardhan, who came through a marathon against qualifier Vijayendra Laad yesterday, was a 7-6 (5), 6-4 winner over left-handed Kedar Tembe (Maharashtra).

The left-handed Vinod Sridhar, winner of the crown two years ago, wasted little time in disposing off Saurabh Singh, a wild card entry from Chandigarh. He dropped just three games as he set up a last eight clash with Maharashtra teenager Aditya Madkekar who scored a 6-4, 7-5 win over Nomi Qama, a wild card entrant from Pakistan.

The women's draw has seen all but one of the seeded players go through. The eighth seed S Puram Reddy's defeat at the hands of the more experienced Radhika Tulpule - who needed a wild card to enter the tournament after a spell on the sidelines with an injury - was the only 'upset' of the day.

Delhi's Sana Bhambri was in top form as she dropped just two games in as many matches today. As the top seed in the girls under-18 draw, she beat Prerna Mythry 6-0, 6-2 before taking court as the second-seeded player in the women's competition and beating Karina Ahuja almost effortlessly.

The women's top seed Isha Lakhani, winner of the 2002 title here, was most business-like in her straight set victory over Preeti Rao. The left-hander's quarterfinal clash with Radhika Tulpule will worth watching.

Peter Agnel Gladwin (Maharashtra), who won the under-16 and under-14 crowns last year, stopped fifth-seeded Tejaswi Rao (Andhra Pradesh) with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 conquest in the boy's under-18 third round while Siddharth Gulati took out No. 4 Nityesh Nataraj on his way to the quarterfinals.

The results:

Men's singles (second round): 1 Aqeel Khan (Pakistan) beat Mohammed Yasser Arafat (Andhra Pradesh) 6-2, 6-0; 6 Ravishankar Pathanjali (Tamil Nadu) beat Saurav Sukul (Bengal) 6-4, 6-0; Tushar Liberhan (Chandigarh) beat Gursharan Singh (Punjab) 6-3, 6-2; Karan Rastogi (Maharashtra) beat Siddharth Gulati (Delhi) 6-3, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane (Maharashtra) beat 5 VM Ranjeet (Tamil Nadu) 6-3, 7-5; J Vishnuvardhan (Andhra Pradesh) beat Kedar Tembe (Maharashtra) 7-5 (5), 6-4; Aditya Madkekar (Maharashtra) beat Nomi Qamar (Pakistan) 6-4, 7-5; 2 Vinod Sridhar (Tamil Nadu) beat Saurabh Singh (Chandigarh) 6-1, 6-2.

Women's singles (second round): 1 Isha Lakhani (Maharashtra) beat Preeti Rao (Tamil Nadu) 6-1, 6-2; Radhika Tulpule (Maharashtra) beat 8 S Punam Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1; 3 Sonal Phadke (Maharashtra) beat Shalini Sahoo (Delhi) 6-1, 6-0; 8 Parul Goswami (Delhi) beat Vandana Murali (Tamil Nadu) 6-1, 3-6, 6-0; 5 Liza Pereira (Maharashtra) beat Karishma Patel (Gujarat) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5; 4 Archana Venkatraman (Karnataka) beat Sandhya Nagaraj (Tamil Nadu) 6-4, 6-2; 7 Sheetal Goutham (Karnataka) beat Asha Nandakumar (Karnataka) 6-2, 6-2; 2 Sana Bhambri (Delhi) beat Karina Ahuja (Delhi) 6-0, 6-0.

Boys' under-18 singles (third round): 1 Rupesh Roy (Bengal) beat 14 M Hariprasath (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 6-2; 9 Ajay Selvaraj (Tamil Nadu) beat Krishank Shah (Maharashtra) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; 16 Alon Moses (Maharashtra) beat Honey Rana (Delhi) 6-2, 7-5; Rahil Makharia (Maharashtra) beat 7 Prateek Shantaraju (Karnataka) 6-1, 6-1; 8 Rohan Gide (Maharashtra) beat Fariz Mohammed (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 6-1; 16 Siddharth Gulati (Delhi) beat 4 Nityesh Nataraj (Tamil Nadu) 6-3, 7-6 (1); 10 Peter Agnel Gladwin (Maharashtra) beat 5 Tejaswi Rao (Andhra Pradesh) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; 2 Vivek Shokeen (Delhi) beat 13 Vijay Sunder Prashanth (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 7-5.

Girls' under-18 singles (second round): 1 Sana Bhambri (Delhi) beat Prerna Mythry (Andhra Pradesh) 6-0, 6-2; Poojashree Venkatesh (Karnataka) beat 7 Sandri Gangothry (Andhra Pradesh) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (5); 3 GK Shweta (Karnataka) beat Sanjana Kapur (Delhi) 6-0, 7-5; 5 Vandana Murali (Tamil Nadu) beat Shalini Sahoo (Delhi) 6-3, 6-4; Parul Goswami (Delhi) beat Vishaka Sehoran (Delhi) 6-2, 6-1; 4 Pooja Kommireddi (Andhra Pradesh) beat Parija Maloo (Maharashtra) 7-6 (2), 6-2; 6 Preeti Subramaniam (Tamil Nadu) beat Grace Hannah (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 6-0; 2 Shivika Burman (Bengal) beat Amoolya Raghunath (Karnataka) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.