India’s Ashwin Vijayaraghavan and Sudanwa Sitaram defeated their opponents in contrasting styles in the men’s singles first round of the $10,000 LMW-ITF Futures tournament, at the Perks Tennis Centre, here on Monday.
Ashwin, who loves to volley on the slower hardcourts, played fast and sure to dismiss compatriot Kunal Anand 6-1, 6-4.
The 22-year-old, who played collegiate tennis at the University of Texas in Houston, did not sweat much on his way to winning the first set 6-1.
But Kunal, the fighter that he is, put the pressure back on his opponent in the second set.
He got into the groove quickly and began to serve and return well. Ashwin looked shaken for the first time in the match. “I was a little nervous,” he agreed later.
However, the seventh seed handled the pressure-cooker situation with aplomb to take the set and match 6-4.
“It was neck and neck between us. I had my chances to break, which I should have taken. So it took extra long to finish the match,” he added.
Last laugh
Local star Sitaram, on the other hand, had to dig deep into his reserves to overcome a fighting Elwin Antony 6-4, 6-3. Both players boasted of big serves, but in the end, it was Sitaram who had the last laugh.
Later, Sitaram paired with Vivek Shokeen to dispatch Tejas Chaukulkar and Rajat Maheshwari 7-6(7), 6-1.
The results (first round, Indians unless stated) : Singles : Ashwin Vijayaraghavan bt Kunal Anand 6-1, 6-4; Suk Young Jeong (Kor) bt Vignesh Veerabadran 6-1, 6-0; Yang Lu (Chn) bt Jatin Dahiya 6-4, 6-0; Sudanwa Sitaram bt Elwin Antony 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles : Saketh Myneni & R. Arun Prakash bt Vigneshwaran Ramesh & Naveen Sai 7-5, 6-2; Hyun-woo Nam & Jae-Min Seol (Kor) bt Roy Hobbs (Sin) & Austin Karosi (USA) 5-7, 6-1, 10-3; N. Vijay Sunder Prashanth & Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Bharatram Balajee & U.M. Gugan Varma 6-2, 6-4.
Suk-Young Jeong & Seong-Gook OH (Kor) bt Siddharth Rawat & Rakshay Thakkar 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-6.
Kunal Anand & Ajai Selvaraj bt Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood 6-4, 7-6(11); Vivek Shokeen & Sudanwa Sitaram bt Tejas Chaukulkar & Rajat Maheshwari 7-6(7), 6-1.