Calcutta: Top seed and local favourite Shivika Burman, down with a shoulder injury, on Tuesday withdrew from the women’s singles event of the Indian Jute-AITA National Grasscourt Tennis Championship, being held at the South Club.

Leading 4-1 in her first-round match against Smriti Joon of Haryana, Shivika had to consult her physio Joydeep Das Chaudhary after she felt severe pain in her right shoulder. Evaluating the situation, Joydeep advised her to retire immediately. “He said that I may aggravate the injury and it might affect my career if I continued playing today (Tuesday)… So I decided to quit,” Shivika said.

In fact, the local girl used underhand service in the first two games as she found it difficult to extend her arms over her shoulders. “I asked the umpire whether I can use underhand service… The umpire nodded in affirmation. I thought that by serving underhand the pain would be less. But after the fifth game, I could not move my right hand,” said Shivika.

However, it was smooth sailing for most of the other seeds in the tournament. Andhra Pradesh’s Saketh Myneni, top seed in men’s singles, started his campaign on a bright note as he defeated Saurabh Singh 6-3, 6-1. Second-seeded Suresh Krishna of Andhra Pradesh thrashed Delhi’s Deepinder Bains 6-1, 6-3.

However, it was the end of the road for sixth seed Ajai Selvaraj. Qualifier Yogesh Phoghat drubbed Ajai in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. But the match which grabbed most eyeballs was that of seventh seed Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash and the experienced Rupesh Roy. Mohit came back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In the women’s singles, second seed Ankita Raina beat Eetee Mehta 6-4, 7-5.

Results

First round, singles, men: Saketh Myneni (AP) bt Saurabh Singh (Mah) 6-3, 6-1; Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (TN) bt Rupesh Roy (Bengal) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Nitin Kirrtane (Mah) bt Jatin Dahiya (Del) 6-3, 6-3; Arpit Sharma (Raj) bt Arup Mallick(Bengal) 6-0, 6-1; Yogesh Phoghat (Del) bt Ajai Selvaraj (TN) 6-4, 6-4 Women: Smriti Joon bt (Har) bt Shivika Burman (Ben) 4-1 (retd); Amrita Mukherjee (Ben) bt Dipti Srivastava (Ben) 5-1 (retd); Vaniya Dangwal (Del) bt Riya Bhatiya (Del) 6-0, 7-6 (2); Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) bt Victoria Chahal (NTA) 6-2, 6-0; Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Eetee Mehta (Guj) 6-4, 7-5