KPIT-MSLTA ATP Challenger: Vishnu Vardhan advances

October 21, 2014 12:52 am | Updated May 23, 2016 04:11 pm IST - PUNE:

National champion Vishnu Vardhan banked on his big-serving game for a 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 6-3 first-round win over Yannik Reuter of Belgium in the KPIT-MSLTA ATP Challenger, organised by MSLTA and played at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi.

The London Olympian, ranked 619 and returning to competitive tennis after a lay-off, justified the decision to hand him a wildcard. Vishnu Vardhan served 25 aces to get past the Belgian, ranked 339, in two hours, 35 minutes. Richard Becker of Germany was the second player to advance.

The Indian was up 5-2 in the first set before losing momentum. The Belgian drew level and won the tie-break. Both players won games on serve in the second set to force another tie-break.

The former edged ahead in the third and held on to emerge victorious.

In the doubles event, fourth-seeded pair of Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (Spain) & Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kazakhstan) was stunned by Alexander Kudryatsev (Russia) & Richard Becker (Germany), the latter winning 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.

The results:

Singles (first round): Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt Yannik Reuter (Bel) 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 6-3; Richard Becker (Ger) bt Yasutaka Uchiyama (Jpn) 7-5, 6-1.

Doubles (first round): Somdev Devvarman & N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt V.M. Ranjeet & Shriram Balaji 6-2, 6-3; Sonchai Ratiwatana & Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Hiroki Moriya (Jpn) & Danai Udomchoke (Tha) 6-4, 6-3; Alexander Kurdryavtsev (Rus) & Richard Becker (Ger) bt 4-Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (Esp) & Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) 6-4, 4-6, 10-7; Liang-Chi Huang & Chen Ti (Tpe) bt Hsin-Han Lee (Tpe) & Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 6-3, 7-6(3).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.