Divij Sharan, Isha Lakhani top seeds in men and women section

New Delhi, Oct 8 (UNI) Delh's Divij Sharan has been given top billing in the men's section, while Aditya Madkekar of Maharashtra seeded second in the DSCL Open National tennis championship which begins at the DLTA hard courts here from tomorrow.

Defendig champion Sunil Kumar Siapeya, who had also also won the title here in 1999 is missing and so is Kamala Kannan.

The other contenders for the title include Vivek Shokeen, Sanam Singh and Purav Raja.

Leading the way in the ladies section, seasoned Isha Lakhani is the most popular name on view, even though the Bhambri sisters -- Ankita and Sanna -- have decided to give the Nationals a miss.

Tamil Nadu's Sandhya Najaraj, who has been in good form this season, is the second seed while Delhi's Parul Goswami and Mumbai's Sonal Phadke are the third and fourth seeds.

As per the draw made today, Isha has a fairly easy run till the quarter-finals. The same goes for second seeded Sandhya, though she may run into Sagarika Phadke, sister of Sonal in the later stage.

The boys's under-18 and girls' under-18 matches also begin this week. The second week will see the juniors competing for the National title in under-14 and under-16.

Seedings: Men: 1. Divij Sharan 2. Aditya Madkekar. 3. Vivek Shokeen.

4. Vishnu Vardhan Women: 1. Isha Lakhani 2. Sandhya Nagaraj 3. Parul Goswami.

4. Sonal Phadke Boys under-18: 1. Sumit Prakash Gupta 2 Kinshuk Sharma. 3. Arnav Jain.

4. Akshay Bajoria Girls under-18: 1. Shweta Solanki 2. Parija Maloo. 3. Vishaka Sheoran.

4. Ashmitha Eashwaramurthi UNI HSB PDS BST1805