BHUBANESWAR 02-Mar-2018
Siddharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar beat top seeds and fellow Indians Arjun Kadhe and N Vijay Sundar Prashant 6-3, 6-2 in the final to win the doubles title in the ongoing OTA-ITF Futures-1 Men’s Pro Circuit Tennis Tournament here at the Kalinga Stadium Tennis Complex today.
But in singles semifinals, 2nd seeded Siddharth Rawat suffered an upset as he was shown the door in a long 2 hr 47 mins marathon by 4th seeded N Vijay Sundar Prashant. In the opening set, Prashant broke the higher seeded Rawat at 4-3 and thereafter held the lead to pocket the set by 6-3.
In the second, Prashant got an early break as Rawat dropped serve at 1-1. But unfortunately Prashant failed to keep the lead as he himself faltered at 3-2 on serve, thereby taking the score to 3-3. The set went on with hold of serves and eventually led to a tie-breaker where Rawat proved to be more confident and managed to level the match by winning the set by 7-6(3).
The decider saw a string of service holds as the set approached to yet another tie-breaker where the determined and gutsy Prashant got lucky as he won the set by 7-6(5). He will face Arjun Kadhe, seeded 3 in the draw who was stretched by unseeded Patrik Rikl to a 1 hr 51 mins battle where the former won by a close 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4.
RESULTS:
Singles (SFs): Arjun Khade (3, IND) bt Patrik Rikl (CZE) 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4. N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (4, IND) bt Sidharth Rawat (2, IND) 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(5).
Doubles (Final): Sidharth Rawat-Manish Sureshkumar (IND) bt Arjun Khade-N Prashanth (IND) 6-3, 6-2.
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PHOTO: Double title winners and runners-up with guests and OTA officials in Bhubaneswar on March 2, 2018.
