It was the very first point of the match. Vijay Sundar Prasanth’s serve was well-returned by Shahbaaz Khan, who then proceeded to slice one short and hoped to catch the No. 1 seed unawares on Court No. 3’s second match-up of the day at the Raman Sports Trust $10,000 ITF Futures tennis here on Tuesday.
Vijay Sundar might have been excused if he did not go for it so early in the contest. But not only did he do so buts also put away an exquisite down the line winner. That set the tone for the rest of the match. Point won, he soon wrapped up the game — there was an ace in-between — and within no time it was a 5-0 lead before Shahbaaz stemmed the rot.
The qualifier did crank up 7 aces of his own, but it was hardly enough to trouble Vijay Sundar.
Gao pushes RanjeetIn trouble though for a while was No. 4 seed V.M. Ranjeet, who occupied the same court before Vijay Sundar. With a mild breeze mitigating the rising temperature, Ranjeet was hardly expected to break a sweat against Xin Gao of China.
But probably lulled by the ‘milder climes’ — the call for electrolytes came out only after the seventh game — Ranjeet managed to convert only three of the 11 break points that came his way.
The story was no different in the first tie-breaker. At 5-3 up, Ranjeet was well placed to knock off the set but he allowed Gao to come back not only to five-all but all the way up to nine even.
It was then that things unravelled for the Chinese. An argument with the chair umpire over a line call distracted him so much that it soon became 11-9 and the set was lost. Ranjeet drove the advantage further in the first game of the second by going a break up.
Post that the script changed dramatically; Gao’s repeated use of the chip and approach tactic only served to give Ranjeet easy putaways, one-nil soon became 2-0 and finally morphed into a 6-1 set score.
Blaming the weatherLater with the temperature and the humidity spiking, Spains’ Borja Rodrigues Manzano had this to say to The Hindu . “The tennis was good, but the physique (sic) not good. If I lost the tie-break in second, I would have lost the match.”
He had just ridden out a great comeback from wildcard entrant R. Rishabdev. Having already pocketed the first set 6-2 at a canter, the Spaniard would have been the last to expect the local lad to come out punching hard.
But so good did Rishabdev play in the second that after a particularly engrossing rally — in which both players ended up at the net and the Indian whipped a winner across his rival — Rodriguez Manzano stood for a moment and applauded.
Stretched to the tie-break, the Spaniard pulled out all stops to finally advance against his equally tiring opponent.
Later he added, “the hot (sic) is no problem, humidity yes.” He also hinted that the same reason could be attributed to the losses suffered by the overseas players on day 1. “Those who ‘life’ here face no problem,” was his take.
Poonacha stunnedMeanwhile on Court No. 1, Niki Poonacha was understandably upset as he flung his racquet away after losing to qualifier Tejas Chaukulkar in three sets; more so since he had outplayed Chaukulkar 6-1 in the second set.
In doubles action in the second session of the day, the top-seeded pairing of Vijay Sundar and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan unpacked their high-fives as they disposed of Jayesh Pungliya and Nitin Kumar Sinha in straight sets.
Completing their abandoned match from the first day, the Sood twins, Chandril and Lakshit, beat back Fahad Mohammed and P. Vignesh.
The results:
Singles: First round: Vijay Sundar Prasanth bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-1, 6-4; V.M. Ranjeet bt Xin Gao (Chn) 7-6(9), 6-1; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Lakshit Sood 6-2, 6-2; Borja Rodriguez Manzano (Esp) bt R. Rishabdev 6-2, 7-6(2); Tejas Chaukulkar bt Niki Poonacha 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; Sumit Nagal bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-4, 6-2; S.D. Prajwal Dev bt Zach Itzstein (Aus) 7-5, 6-3.
Doubles: First round: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Jayesh Pungliya & Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-2; 2-Xin Gao (Chn) & Bowen Ouyang (Chn) bt Jatin Dahiya & Sidharth Rawat 7-6(5), 7-6(7); Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt Fahad Mohammed & P. Vignesh 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-8; 3-J. Mohit Mayur & K. Vinayak Sharma bt Tejas Chaukulkar & R. Samuel 6-2, 6-3.
