Prajnesh wins; Vishnu goes down fighting

India’s Vishnu Vardhan bowed out in an unfortunate manner as he suffered cramps at a crucial stage to lose to Sami Reiwein of Germany in the quarterfinal of the $15,000 F5 ITF Futures tennis tournament. Vishnu lost 7-6 (7), 5-7, 3-6.

In a hard-fought contest that lasted for nearly three hours at the KSLTA stadium, Vishnu lost 7-6 (7), 5-7, 3-6. .

The opening set saw long rallies with both slugging away steadily from the baseline.  With both players holding on to their serve, the set spilled into a tie-breaker. The tie-break too was a close call  and at 7-7 Vishnu seized control to close the set at 7-6 (7) forcing Reiwein to net a low volley. Reiwein came back strongly in the second to forge ahead at 4-2 with a break in the sixth game.

But, Vishnu hit back to level the scores at 4-4. The set seemed destined for a tight finish at 5-5 when Vishnu went down in pain with a cramp.   The German made the most of the opportunity to take the set at 7-5.

Reiwein had little trouble in closing the third set 6-3 to book his place in the semifinals.
Reiwein next takes on the top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Prajnesh defeated fifth seed Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 6-3 in his quarters tie.

Results (Indian unless mentioned): Singles: Quarterfinals: Balaji bt Siddarth Rawat 6-3, 6-3; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 6-3; Sami Reiwein (Ger) bt Vishnu 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-3; Karunuday Singh bt Haadin Bava 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles: Semifianls: N Sriram Balaji/ Vishnu  bt Alexander C/ S Renwein 7-6 (3), 6-0; Chandril Sood/ Lakshit Sood bt J Patrombon/ Vijay Sundar Prashanth 4-6, 6-1, 10-8.