ITF Tiruchi championship: Portaluri moves up

Giorgio Portaluri hit solid strokes from the baseline and also used drop shots to good effect to beat Andre Gaspar Murta to advance to the second round. PHOTO: M. Moorthy

Italy’s Giorgio Portaluri scored an upset 6-4, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Andre Gaspar Murta of Portugal,and advanced to the second round of the Vasan Eye Care-ITF men’s Futures tennis championship at the Union Club here on Monday.

After the players traded breaks early in the first set, Portaluri broke his opponent’s serve again in the ninth game to take a crucial 5-4 lead. The Italian, who hit solid strokes from the baseline, also used the drop shots to good effect. He held serve without much trouble in the 10th game to clinch the opener 6-4.

Murta struggled in the second set, making quite a few unforced errors. The Portuguese lost serve twice to go down 1-4. Portaluri, who saved four break points in the eighth game, went on to take the set 6-2, and with the match.

The results (Indians unless mentioned): First round:Singles: Giorgio Portaluri (Ita) bt Andre Gaspar Murta (Por) 6-4, 6-2; Sergio Martos Gornes (Esp) bt Sagar Ahuja 6-2, 6-3; Ronit Singh Bisht bt Ajai Selvaraj 7-5, 6-0; Suraj R. Prabodh bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash 0-6, 6-1, 6-3; N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Vigneshwaran Ramesh 6-1, 7-5; Kunal Anand bt Chandril Sood 6-3, 6-4; Akash Wagh bt Sergey Shipilov (Uzb) 6-3, 6-0.

Doubles: Nitten Kirrtane & Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Romano Frantzen (Ned) & Enrique Lope-Perez (Esp) 6-3, 6-4; Vinayak Sharma Kaza & P.C. Vignesh bt Jatin Dahiya & Vijayant Malik 7-5, 6-2; Jannis Liniger (Sui) & N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt N. Sriram Balaji & V.M. Ranjeet 7-6(3), 6-2; Giorgio Portaluri (Ita) & Lucas Renard (Swe) bt Elwin Antony & Ajai Selvaraj 7-6(5), 2-6, 10-6; Sergio Martos Gornes & Pol Toledo Bague (Esp) bt Anvit Bendre & Ronit Singh Bisht 4-6, 6-4, 11-9.