Top seed Vishnu Vardhan asserted his supremacy yet again as he beat local lad Dalwinder Singh 7-6(4), 6-4 in the final of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the Harvest Academy, Jassowal, on Saturday.

It was a high quality fare from the 28-year-old, who served 12 aces in the match and converted one breakpoint. He saved the only breakpoint he faced in the whole match, in what proved to be the last game of the contest, to win in an hour and 48 minutes.

It was the fifth title in recent weeks for Vishnu, who had won back-to-back titles in the Asian Tennis Tour (ATT) in Delhi at the start of the four-week campaign.

He had won a double crown in Chandigarh in the first Futures event in the country this season, and had stumbled last week at Jassowal, in the second round of the singles and the doubles semifinals.

Vishnu had opted to focus on singles alone and reaped rich rewards, in the form of his ninth singles title in the professional circuit.

“I am really elated to keep up the winning streak, after being exhausted physically last week. I focused only on singles this week, keeping in mind the weather,” said Vishnu, who is coached by C.V. Nagraj in Hyderabad and has Mohd. Abdul Latheef as his physical trainer.

The ONGC employee was understandably happy, as he had survived two match-points in the first round against Kaza Vinayak Sharma.

Overall, Vishnu served strong and did not give many chances for his opponents, event though he did drop two sets along the way.

He said it was the best he had served the whole week, in any tournament, firing 23 aces in one match.

For 20-year-old Dalwinder Singh, trained at the Academy for the last 10 years, it was a big leap as he had rarely crossed the second round in such a tournament.

The results (final): Vishnu Vardhan bt Dalwinder Singh 7-6(4), 6-4.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sports> Tennis / by Sports Bureau / Ludhiana – May 14th, 2016