Harpal Singh Bedi
Mysuru,1 April : Mukund Sasikumar and Vishnu Vardhan overpowered B Ritvick Choudary and Nikki Poonacha in straight sets to win the doubles titles while the Indian challenge ended in the singles category of the Cycle Pure Agarbathi ITF Mysuru Open here on Saturday.
In the singles, local challenger S D Prajwal Dev went down fighting to George Loffhagen of Britain 5-7, 4-6 in a tight semifinal match that lasted precisely two hours.
Loffhagen will face eighth seeded Australian Blake Ellis, who shocked second seeded American Oliver Crawford 7-5, 6-3 in the other last four clash. The final will be played on Sunday.
In the doubles final Mukund /Vishnu took 70 minutes to beat Ritvick and Nikki 6-3, 6-4 .
Mukund and Vishnu warded off seven break points in the match while they converted two opportunities to break their opponents to ease their way to the title.
“First of all I am very happy to return to Mysore Tennis Club. I was here as a 12-year-old and I was also the winner of the first International tournament here in 2012. Now, I am very happy to win the doubles title, so I think I partially defended my title. This is my first title post-Covid and thanks a lot to Mukund for helping me with that. It was fun sharing the court with him and thanks to Mukund’s mom for supporting us off the court. It is always fun to play against Niki and Ritvick, who had beaten me in the last three ITF events, so I could get my revenge this week,” said Vishnu Vardhan after the match.
“Both Niki and Ritvick are very hard working players and I wish both of you reach higher stages soon. And Vishnu, I have seen him for several years now and he gives 100 percent all the time and treats all the matches with the same importance. A little story now, when I came here with my mom in 2012 I was reconsidering playing tennis professionally and from that point to be in Grand Slam ranking and India No 1, it has been a remarkable journey. During the pandemic, my life had hit the rock bottom again but I was decided that irrespective of how this week had gone, this will be a new start to an unforgettable journey this year and I hope to return here soon but hopefully you will see me in bigger tournaments,” said Mukund after the match.
In fact, it was the second match of the day for Mukund and Vishnu and they showed great powers of concentration to stay focused on the task. They also won more than 80 percent of points on both first and second serves, indicating the consistency in their game.
Earlier in the day, Mukund and Vishnu romped into the doubles final upsetting second seeded Australia-Ukraine pair of Blake Ellis and Vladyslav Orlov 6-4, 7-5.
The USD 25,000 event is being hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA).