Hyderabad’s Vishnu Vardhan marched into the third round of the men’s singles event at $10,000 Phoenix Live ITF Futures F10 men’s tennis tournament being conducted by DRC Sports Foundation at Leonia Holistic Destination in Hyderabad. The local lad later on teamed up with N. Sriram Balaji to advance to the semifinal in the men’s doubles category.
Vishnu, who defeated Siddharth Rawat in the first round, dispatched Telangana’s Rishab Agarwal in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to advance.Vishnu, who is seeded sixth in the singles, made short work of his statemate in the first set with his powerful ground strokes as he won it 6-3.
After taking the first comfortably, Vishnu took the hitting to the Telangana player with his deep serves and occasional drop shots to win the second set 6-4 and with it the match. Top seeds Vishnu and Sriram had no problems in overcoming Prajwal Dev S.D. and Aditya Anant Gokhale in the doubles quarterfinal. They won the match in dominating fashion 6-2, 6-2.
Earlier, Sriram who is seeded first in the singles category, knocked out compatriot Hardeep Singh Sandhu 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). Sriram won the first set with consummate ease 6-1. In the second, Hardeep put up a strong fight as he took the set to a tie-breaker. But in the end it was not enough as the Tamil Nadu lad won 7-6 (7-4).
In the other singles matches, fifth seed Murugesan Ranjit Virali outplayed Jayesh Pungliya 7-5, 6-3; Sasi Kumar Mukund edged past France’s Alexandre 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash got the better of Lucas Bouquet in a thrilling three-setter 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Jeevan Neduncheziyan beat Arjun Kadhe 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).
Results
Men’s singles 2nd round: Balaji Sriram (IND) bt Hardeep Singh Sandhu (IND) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Hugo Genier (FRA) bt Anvit Bendre (IND) 6-3, 6-2; Antoine Escoffier (FRA) bt Poonacha Niki Kaliyanda (IND) 6-1, 7-5; Murugesan Ranjit Virali (IND) bt Jayesh Pungliya (IND) 7-5, 6-3; Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Rishab Agarwal (IND) 6-3, 6-4; Sasi Mukund Kumar (IND) bt Alexandre Muller (FRA) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) bt Lucas Bouquet (FRA) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND) bt Arjun Kadhe (IND) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).
Men’s doubles quarterfinals: Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Prajwal Dev S.D. (IND)/ Aditya Anant Gokhale (IND) 6-2, 6-2; Basil Khuma (IND)/ Alex Solanki (IND) bt Poonacha Niki Kaliyanda (IND)/ Vighnesh Peranamallur (IND) 7-6 (7-5), 0-6, 10-6; Lucas Bouquet (FRA)/ Alexandre Muller (FRA) bt Sahil Gaware (IND) / Kunal Vazirani (IND) 6-2,6-4; Antoine Escoffier (FRA)/ Hugo Grenier (FRA) bt Suraj Prabodh (IND)/ Rashein Samuel (IND) 6-4,6-1.
