Jamshedpur, April 18: Jharkhand had a big day in the ongoing Tata Steel All-India Tennis Association (AITA) Tennis Championship as its players put up a fine performance to move into the quarterfinals of the tournament. This is the inaugural version of the tournament and is being held at the JRD Tata Sports complex, the United club and the Beldih club.

Three city-based players, including top-seed Micah Muhury, sailed into the quarter-finals of the under-18 girls? category. While Micah saw off West Bengal?s Serena Martin in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 at the JRD Tata Sports complex in the morning session, Pritha Roychowdhury and Shobha Mathen defeated Sutapa Banerjee 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and Meghna Malhotra 6-1, 6-0, respectively.

West Bengal?s Shrestha Banerjee, Mokshada Jain, Snighda Kapoor, Rohini Das and Arundhati Basu were the other players who also advanced into the last eight from the under-18 category.

Jharkhand players also put up an impressive display in the under-18 boys? category. The state lads, who were given wild cards for the main draw, performed well in the first round of the under-18 category. Manoj Kumar Mishra, Pankaj Tiwari, Prosonjit Paul, Vikas Jha, Anand Gupta and Jagjot Singh posted comfortable wins to sail into the next round. However, Meetanshru Wadhwa lost to Samudra Sarangi 3-6, 6-4, 2-6 in a hard-fought encounter.

Soumit Dey of West Bengal, the top seed in the boys? under-18 category, also had it easy in the first round of the main draw registering a straight set 6-0-6-1 win over teammate Md Sarafaraz. Prem Singh, also of West Bengal, advanced into the next round.

In the girls? under-14 category Serena Martin, who lost to Micah in the under-18 category, advanced to the last eight along with Jharkhand?s Sutapa Banerjee. While the former beat Sushmita Paul, the latter, all of 10 years and the youngest participant of the meet, outplayed statemate Shivangi Paul in straight sets.