Former national champion Vishnu Vardhan had to sweat it out before subduing Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-7(7), 7-6(2) in the quarterfinals of the ITM University $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the City Centre Tennis Complex on Thursday.
It was the third victory in four meetings in the international circuit for the 28-year-old Vishnu over Rawat. It may be recalled that Vishnu had battled past Rawat in the final of the national championship last year.
In a battle that lasted nearly three hours, the 500th ranked Vishnu wrested the initiative by taking the first set in the 12th game in which he had to save four breakpoints. He had trailed 1-3 in that set.
It proved handy as Vishnu lost the extended tie-break in the second set after having saved two setpoints. In the decider, Vishnu went up a break early, but the 22-year-old Rawat neutralised to take the set into the tie-break.
In the climax, Vishnu called the shots, running up a 4-0 lead and closing out the match, in which he served 10 aces and had a double-fault. He converted three of 10 breakpoints, while the 661st ranked Rawat converted the two breakpoints that he forced.
In the semifinals, Vishnu will challenge top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, ranked 255 and playing on a wild card here. The other semifinal will be between Mohit Mayur and G. Prajnesh.
In a fight between two former national champions, Mohit beat V.M. Ranjeet in three sets, while Prajnesh sailed past Niki Poonacha with relative ease.
The results: Singles: Quarterfinals: Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-3, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-7(7), 7-6(2); Mohit Mayur bt V.M. Ranjeet 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2; G. Prajnesh bt Niki Poonacha 7-5, 6-2.
Doubles: Semifinals: Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan bt Mohit Mayur & Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-1, 6-1; Jui-Chen Hung (Tpe) & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Anvit Bendre & Chandril Sood 6-1, 7-5.
