A hold at love while he served the match out underlined Saketh Myneni’s supremacy, a dominance the scoreline 6-1, 6-2 adequately sums up.
The 25-year-old closed it out a with second-serve ace, his opponent V.M. Ranjeet failing to respond for one final time on a windy Saturday evening.
A second Futures title in as many weeks saw Myneni receive a 27-point boost to his ranking.
The final of the Dida $15,000 tournament was slightly affected by the elements, with strong winds hurting Ranjeet more. Myneni aimed to keep the points short by approaching the net regularly. The Vizag lad also produced a high first-serve percentage. With few opportunities to attack the second serve, Ranjeet had little else to exploit.
After three comfortable holds of serve, Ranjeet’s three forehand errors saw him drop serve in the fourth game. Myneni held serve and broke Ranjeet again to make it 5-1.
The following game saw Ranjeet suddenly gaining from errors from Myneni, but the latter saved two break points, and went on to win the opening set.
Ranjeet began the second by holding serve to love, even hitting his first ace of the match on game point. And, Myneni slipped to 0-30 in the following game, but held serve thanks to consecutive backhand winners, followed by a service winner on game point. With Ranjeet complaining to the chair umpire about the balls being too soft, Myneni broke in the third game, and then held to make it 3-1. Another break of serve later gave the Vizag lad a chance to serve for the title.
