Second seed Vishnu Vardhan overcame a spirited opponent and a rain-interruption to seal his second successive title, securing a battling 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 over top seed Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei in the final of the Toyota $10,000 ITF Futures men’s tournament here on Saturday.
Vishnu, who won the Mysore leg, kept his cool and composure even as the rain played spoilsport which saw the match being halted for about 90 minutes at the KSLTA courts. Vishnu, ranked 318, collected $1300 and 18 points while Chen received $900 and 12 points.
Vishnu and Chen, ranked 282, shared one game apiece in the first set before the Indian fired two consecutive aces in the third game to go 2-1 ahead. Soon after that, heavens opened up and it played hide and seek for about half-an-hour. When the rains stopped, the hard-working ground staff were soon in action and it took them an about an hour to get the court ready for play.
When the match restarted, Vishnu seemed in a hurry to finish it off as the Indian broke Chen with a deep return which his rival dumped into the net. Vishnu served well and raced to a 4-1 lead with an ace before clinching the first set by breaking Chen in the eighth game.
With natural light fading, floodlights were switched on. As like in his previous matches, Chen hit back in style, converting the first of the two break points in the third game. Chen’s top spin crosscourt returns put Vishnu on the backfoot and often the Indian’s forehand sailed over the baseline. Chen, who saved break points in the sixth and tenth games, held on to his service games to level the set scores.
A crucial break in the fourth game of the decider put Vishnu in a good position for one final onslaught. From that point onwards, Chen slowly lost his grip in the match and a seemingly frustrated top seed engaged in argument with the chair umpire for service calls on a couple of occasions. A nervous Chen dropped the sixth game before Vishnu emerged champion with a deep serve which his opponent floated long.
Results (final, prefix denotes seeding): 2-Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt 1-Ti Chen (Tpe) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Doubles: 2-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (Ind) bt 1-N Sriram Balaji/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (Ind) 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.
