Mumbai, Jan 31:
Men’s and women’s singles top seeds Vishnu Vardhan and Eetee Maheta crashed out of the Rs 12-lakh prize money Omkar All India ranking men’s and women’s tennis championship held at the the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana Club (JVPG) today.
Qualifier Mohit Mayur sent men’s no.1 seed Vishnu Vardhan packing in three sets in a second round match, while Eetee also went down in three sets against unseeded Sowjanya Bavisetti.
London Olympian Vardhan looked to be in control of proceedings till an inspired Mayur dug deep to win 3-6 7-5 6-3 in just under two hours.
Women’s top seed Eetee also suffered the same fate as she was knocked out by Sowjanya after winning the opening set like Vardhan. Sowjanya won 4-6 6-3 6-3.
In the eagerly-awaited Vardhan-Mayur matchup, it was the India no. 4 who stamped his authority in the early part of the match and he was rewarded in the eighth game when he broke Mayur’s serve before serving out the first set.
After surviving a long opening game to the second set on his serve, Mayur steadily began to secure easy holds.
However, the equal effectiveness of Vardhan’s serve frustrated him to the extent where he eventually picked up a code violation for flinging his racquet after losing a point.
Mayur’s grit finally bore fruit when he earned three break points while leading 6-5 and sealed the set on his second.
It seemed to swing the momentum well in favour of the underdog who grabbed an early break in the deciding set and won his fifth straight game to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
Vardhan did have a couple of opportunities in game seven but Mayur held on for 5-2 and produced a jittery-free final service game to close out the match. (PTI)
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