It was an easy day at the office for top seeds Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan as they registered comfortable victories on the first day one of the Match Point Tennis Academy ITF men’s Futures tennis championship here on Monday.
Saurabh Patil was hardly a match for Balaji, the No.1 seed, losing the first set 6-1. In the second, he fell 4-1 behind. He never seemed to trust his backhand, often running around to strike the ball inside out.
Balaji, meanwhile, was not averse to advancing towards the net, and it paid off as got some easy volleys to put away.
Jeevan easily took the first set against Shahbaaz Khan. The latter could never produce a prolonged patch of decent play.
The highlight of the day came early in the first when Jeevan essayed an on-the-run forehand that curled just enough to catch the line. A misfiring forehand added to Shahbaaz’s woes in the second, and Jeevan romped home by taking the set 6-3.
The results (Indians unless specified): Main draw: Singles: N. Sriram Balaji bt Saurabh Patil 6-1, 6-2; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Jui-Chen Hung (Tpe) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(2); Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-2, 6-3.
Doubles: Toshihide Matsui & Bumpei Sato (Jpn) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund & U.M. Gugan Verma 6-1, 6-2; Neeraj Elangovan & Ajai Selvaraj bt Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood 4-6, 7-6 (6),10-8; Kaza Vinayak Sharma & Abhijeet Tiwari bt A. Partha Saradhi & Garry Tokas 4-6, 6-4, 10-7; Kunal Anand & Ronak Manuja bt Suraj Prabodh & Arpit Sharma 6-2, 6-2.
Qualifying (final round): Singles: Fariz Mohammed bt Rithvik Anand 6-2 7-6 (2); Tushar Mandlekar bt Gagan Sharma 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Anvit Bendre bt Rutger Cramer 6-0, 6-3; Garvit Batra bt Suraj Prabodh 6-3 7-6 (3); Lakshit Sood bt Vikram Naidu Srinivas 6-2, 6-1; Suraj Beniwal bt Sagar Manjanna 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; Sagar Ahuja bt Manav Kumar Chakma 6-0, 7-5; Vigneshwaran Ramesh bt Tarun Nath Surath 7-6 (6), 7-5; Tushar Mandlekar bt Fahad Mohammed 1-6, 6-3, 6-0.
