Top seed Sasi Kumar Mukund got the better of seventh seed Aryan Goveas 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals at the $15,000 LMW-ITF Futures tournament here on Friday.
Big-serving Aryan was expected to give Sasi Kumar a run for his money and he did show signs of it by breaking in the opening game of the match. The latter, who has the big experience of bouncing back from a situation, did that quite nicely by breaking back in the very next game. It was the crisp volleys and crunching serves that helped him draw level.
Sasi Kumar stepped on the pedal from there and broke Aryan in the fourth for a 3-1 and further upped the pace to clinch the set 6-3.
The first set loss put the young Mumbaikar on the back foot. He struggled to get his first serves in the second set and even failed to read the line right on a couple of occasions to lose the set 6-4 and the match.
Sasi Kumar will now take on Arjun Kadhe, who rallied to defeat Cing-Yang Meng of Chinese Taipei 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-0 and enter his maiden Futures final. Arjun was lucky that everything went right for him in the first set. He created the chances and went boldly for the shots. Cing-Yang was also right up there. The Indian let slip three set points and Cing-Yang managed to scrape through in the tie-breaker.
Cing-Yang was happy that he went flat out to wrap up the set but in the process hurt his shoulder badly. It was a difficult journey from there and Arjun wrested the advantage to take the next two sets and the match.
Chandril and Lakshit Sood, the top seeded pair, combined well to oust Arjun Kadhe and Sasi Kumar combo 6-4, 6-2 for the doubles title.
The results: Semifinals: Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Aryan Goveas 6-3, 6-4; Arjun Kadhe bt Cing-Yang Meng (Tpe) 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: Final: Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt Arjun Kadhe & Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-4, 6-2 .
