The top-seeded Ramkumar Ramanathan staved off a stiff challenge from eight-seeded P. Vishnu Vardhan, winning a gruelling three-setter 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3, to clinch the men’s singles title in the $10,000 ITF Sobha Mysuru Open at the Infosys tennis courts here on Saturday.
In a match that lasted two hours and thirty minutes, Ramkumar started poorly losing serve in the opening game with a series of unforced errors.
Vishnu Vardhan went into an early 3-1 lead, but could not capitalise on the same as Ramkumar fought back, breaking in a lengthy sixth game to level at 3-3, after an interesting tussle for supremacy which saw Vishnu Vardhan erring with his volleys at the net.
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The games went on serve after that, with both players matching each other with some splendid strokes. In the resultant tie-break, Ramkumar took a 5-1 lead with some excellent serving and volleying, and went on to take the first set.
The second saw Vishnu Vardhan come back fighting to restore parity. He held his opening service game and then secured the all-important service-break in the second game. Vishnu was soon up 4-1 and ultimately took the set 6-3.
In the final set, both players served well initially. It was while leading 3-2 that Ramkumar broke Vishnu. He started off with a winning volley at the net. After a backhand error from Vishnu Vardhan, Ramkumar executed a forehand cross-court pass to take the game.
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He held serve for the rest of the set to clinch the match.
Ramkumar took home $1,440 along with a trophy and 27 ATP points while Vishnu Vardhan pocketed $848 and 15 points.
The results:
Singles (final): Ramkumar Ramanathan bt P. Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3.