Kathmandu, Apr. 22:The First King’s Cup Open Tennis Championship kicked off at new tennis complex of All-Nepal Lawn Tennis Association (ANLTA) at Satdobato Saturday.

Rupert Calbourne Praveen Dayananda had easy first round wins over their respective opposition in the men’s single while Vindya Dayananda.  Malika Rana and Nabina Gurung too disposed off their rivals in the junior girls’ singles event in straight sets.

Coalbourne, playing powerful tennis hardly faced any challenge from Soviet Man Shrestha.  Playing power tennis with big serves and sharp double-handed backhand returns he made a short work of Shrestha by talking the match at 6-1, 6-2.

In the other match Praveen Dayananda looked impressive at 6-2, 6-4 win over Bishwo Man Shrestha to move to next round Dayananda returned  later to win yet another match, heating Stephen while dropping only one game at 6-0, 6-1.

Raju Shrestha, meanwhile had a walkover from Andrew Lundren as the latter failed to report at the court for their match to progress through to the second round in men’s single.

In the junior girls’ singles, Vindya Dayananda beat Chandni Singh by 6-1, 6-0 while Mallika Rana and Nabina Gurung defeated Elena Poole and Anjana Khadka with the score of 6-1, 6-0 and 6-4, 6-3 respectively.

Altogether 140 tennis players are taking part in the tournament, marking the 55th Birthday of His Majesty the King, which has been organized by ANLTA in conjunction with the International Leasing and Finance Company Ltd.

Earlier, the managing director of International Leasing and Finance Company Ltd (ILFCL) Dong Hyuk Kim inaugurated the tournament.

Other results: Junio boys’ single – Sandeep Tamrakar bt Biraj Singh (6-1, 6-3) Junior girls’ single-Laura Hunt bt Akriti Singh (6-4,10-8).

Sub-junior blackn boys’ – Jeetendra Pariyar bt Bikash Thapa Magar (6-1, 6-0), Abhisek  More bt Jonathan Edon (6-4, 6-3), Sang Ryal Kim bt Paul Andon (64-64).   Shreyan Karki bt Sanjya Choegyal (6-3, 7-5).  Andrew Hurt bt Om Shrestha (6-4, 6-4),  Utsav Rijal bt Sindeep Tamrakar (6-4, 6-4).  Sub-junior boys’ (under-14) Sunny  Shrestha bt Safal Sharma (w/o), Paul Hoffman bt Bishal Pandey (9-2), Sanjay Choegyal bt Punya Khadgi (9-3), Eelum Dixit bt Rojan Shrestha (9-5) Om Shrestha  bt Mikhael Lari (9-5).