The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Divij Sharan-Vishnu Vardhan win

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Divij Sharan-Vishnu Vardhan win

Sports Reporter

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

ALL SMILES: Vishnu Vardhan and Divij Sharan present a happy picture.

CHENNAI: Surviving boiler room-like conditions on court, unseeded Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan turned on the heat to topple top-seeded Ashutosh Singh and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya in the final of the ITF Futures doubles tournament on Friday. Divij and Vishnu had also accounted for second seeds Alexey Kedruyk and Rupesh Roy in the quarterfinal.

The final at Gandhinagar Club here, played in weather that may have warranted an “extreme sport” status for the contest, began on a disastrous note for the Delhi-Chandigarh pair of Ashutosh and Sunil.

Struggle with serves

Broken in his first service game, Ashutosh continued to struggle with his serve and was broken again in the fifth game.

Though they managed to pull one back by breaking Vishnu in the eighth, Ashutosh promptly lost his serve once more to surrender the first set 6-3.

Down 0-30 in the second set opener, Divij fired in two aces to get out of trouble. With both teams willing to work that extra bit for every point, the second set went on serve till the sixth game, before Sunil let loose a flurry of big forehand winners to crack Vishnu’s serve in the seventh. Ashutosh held in the tenth to net his team the second set. At one set apiece, it was time for the match tie-break where Ashutosh’s serve let him down again and Vishnu and Divij hurried to a 5-1 lead.

Multiple changes

After multiple changes in the mini-break equation, Ashutosh slammed a smash into the net at match-point to give Vishnu and Divij their first title.

In the men’s singles, the number one seed, Peter Gojowczyk, beat his doubles partner Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-1, 6-1 in just 46 minutes. Gojowczyk served 12 aces to set up a title clash with the second-seeded Kedruyk, who got defeated Korean Hyun-Woo Nam 7-6(6), 6-3 in a gruelling encounter that lasted just over two hours.

The results: Singles semifinals: Peter Gojowczyk (Ger) bt Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) 6-1, 6-1; Alexey Kedruyk bt Hyun-Woo Nam 7-6(6), 6-3. Doubles final: Divij Sharan & Vishnu Vardhan bt Ashutosh Singh & Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-3, 4-6, 10-7.

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