V.M. Ranjeet of India and Caio Silva of Brazil won the doubles title in the TVS-ITF men’s Futures tournament at the Madurai Union Club here on Saturday with a 6-4, 2-6, 11-9 win over Victor Crivoi and Patrick Ciorcila of Romania.
After the teams traded breaks early — Crivoi and Silva paid for double faults at crucial points, Ciorcila was broken in the seventh game.
After Silva won breakpoint by forcing an error with a solid return, Ciorcila delivered a double-fault to yield the game. Ranjeet and Silva rode that break to close out the set.
Ranjeet was broken in the second game of the second set after Silva smashed wide and Ranjeet’s backhand volley went long. Ciorcila’s brilliant cross-court volley on breakpoint clinched the game for the Romanians.
Crivoi and Ciorcila broke Silva in the eighth game — Ciorcila’s brilliant backhand passing shot was followed by Crivoi’s forehand pass down the line — to clinch the second set.
Unforced errors
In the match tie-break, the Romanians took a 7-1 lead, helped along by unforced errors from the Indo-Brazilian duo. From there, Ranjeet and Silva clawed their way to an 8-7 lead as Crivoi’s forehand let him down at crucial stages.
However, Ciorcila won both points on his serve to take the Romanians to matchpoint at 9-8. However, Ranjeet came up with a couple of smashes on Silva’s serve, and that brought up the Indo-Brazilian pair’s matchpoint at 10-9.
With Crivoi serving to stay in the match, Ranjeet produced a solid backhand return and Ciorcila’s backhand volley found the net.
“It was great to come back from 1-7 down to clinch the final set,” said Ranjeet.
Silva thanked his physio, Alagappan from Chennai, for getting him ready for the Madurai leg.
In the singles semifinals, third seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan retired with a stomach strain against N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth while trailing 4-6, 5-4.
Top seed Victor Crivoi had an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Filippo Leonardi of Italy.
The results:Singles: Semifinals: N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 4-5 (retd.); Victor Crivoi (Rou) bt Filippo Leonardi (Ita) 6-1, 6-2. Doubles: Final: V.M. Ranjeet & Caio Silva (Bra) bt Victor Crivoi & Patrick Ciorcila (Rou) 6-4, 2-6, 11-9.
