ONGC’s Ankita Raina drubbed GAIL’s Prerna Bhambri 6-0, 6-0 to claim the women’s crown in the 33rd PSPB inter-unit tennis championship at the KSLTA Stadium here on Friday.
Ankita served hard and hit fluent winners with her double-handed backhand against a struggling Prerna, who let a spate of double faults and unforced errors get under her skin.
In the men’s section, GAIL’s R Ram Kumar, the top seed, fought hard to overcome ONGC’s VM Ranjeet 6-4, 7-5 to book a spot in the summit tie. ONGC’s Vishnu Vardhan was handed a walkover in the other semifinal after IOCL’s Rohan Bopanna retired after winning the first set.
The semifinal tie between Ram Kumar and Ranjeet was marked by some good rallies and both players set a hot pace, matching each other stroke for stroke. However, it was Ram Kumar’s consistency which saw him past a gritty Ranjeet.
In a battle of big servers, Vishnu and Bopanna fought tooth and nail for each point before Bopanna held his nerve and won the first set 7-6 (10-8). In the second set, Vishnu looked a lot more aggressive and went ahead 3-2 before Bopanna threw in the towel citing fatigue.
Vishnu had earlier in the day won the men’s double title partnering Ranjeet, defeating OIL’s Anshuman Dutta and CS Mohanty 6-1, 6-1.
Bopanna feted
Bopanna was made an honorary member of the KSLTA on Friday. “We took a decision to make Bopanna an honorary member at our EC meeting and it is in honour of his contribution to State and Indian tennis,” said KSLTA joint secretary PR Ramaswamy.
Bopanna said: “I am pleased to the get membership at the KSLTA, which has a special place in my tennis career.”
Results:
Men’s singles (semifinals): R Ram Kumar (GAIL) bt VM Ranjeet (ONGC) 6-4, 7-5; Vishnu Vardhan (ONGC) bt Rohan Bopanna (IOCL) 6-7 (8-10), 3-2 (retd).
Doubles (final): Vishnu Vardhan/ VM Ranjeet (ONGC) bt Anshuman Dutta/ CS Mohanty (OIL) 6-1, 6-1.
Women’s singles (final): Ankita Raina (ONGC) bt Prerna Bhambri (GAIL) 6-0, 6-0.
Veterans singles (semifinals): Tejbir Singh Bhandari (IOCL) bt DJ Bhopurzari (ONGC) 6-0, 6-0; BhushanAkut (BPCL) bt Hakim Ali (OIL) 6-3, 2-1 (retd).
Team event (final): IOCL beat OIL 2-1 (Tejbir Singh Bhandari bt Hakim 6-3, 6-3; Venkatesh lt to Jayantha Malakar 5-7, 2-6; Tejbir Singh Bhandari/ Vivek Satya bt Kalyan Das/ Jayanta Malakar 6-0, 6-0).
Third-place play-off: ONGC bt BPCL 2-1.
