Karnataka’s Vasisht Cheruku went down to another youngster Karunuday Singh 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 in the men’s singles opening round of the ITF Futures tennis tournament at the KSLTA Stadium here on Monday.
The contest saw some sparkling tennis from both the players. Vasisht began brightly with his sharp volleys and strong forehand returns to seize the initiative in the first set. Breaking Karunuday in the second game, he took a 3-0 lead and maintained the momentum to stretch it to 5-2 before wrapping the set at 6-3.
Karunuday, however, came back strongly in the second set as he battled Vasisht to five deuces in the sixth game, before finally breaking him to grab a 4-2 lead and then take the set 6-3.
The hard hitting Karunuday then stepped up the tempo and broke Vasisht in the third game and just hung on to that vital break to win the set and tie 6-4.
Meanwhile, fourth seed Mukund Sai Kumar and fifth seed N Vijay Sundar Prashanth had fairly comfortable wins.
Prashanth defeated the qualifier Jatin Dahiya 6-4, 7-5 while Mukund made short work of Jeson Patrombon of Phllippines 6-3, 6-1. The promising Mumbai youngster Aryan Goveas went down fighting to Hong Kit Wong of Hong Kong 6-4, 4-6, 2-6 and Mohit Mayur, after dropping the first set, rallied to beat Kaliyanda Poonacha 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Results (first round, Indians unless mentioned): Men’s singles: Mohit Mayur bt Kaliyanda Poonacha 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Karunuday Singh bt Vasisht Cheruku 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Siddarth Rawat bt A Shanmugham 6-3, 7-5; N Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Jatin Dahiya 6-4, 7-5; Rishab Agrawal bt Aditya Hari Sasongko (Ina) 6-0, 6-3; Mukund Sai Kumar bt Jeson Patrombon (Phi) 6-3, 6-1; Hong Kit Wong (HK) bt Aryan Goveas 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Published 13 March 2017, 19:01 IST