Goveas falls to Wong in opener

Bengaluru: Singles action welcomed the motley crowd as Hong Kong’s J Wong lost the first set but bounced back to work his way past talented Mumbaikar Aryan Goveas 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round of the men’s single of the India F5 ITF Futures tennis tournament, at the KSLTA Stadium on Monday.

On a day that hadn’t been kind to foreign challengers, Wong bucked the trend with an impressive win after falling behind initially. Wong cruised in the second set after improving his footwork at the baseline, and effused confidence in the decider with some nifty drop shots, highlighting his dominance.

In another tie, Vasisht Cheruku went down 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 in two and a half hours to Karununday Singh.

Balaji-Vardhan pair wins
The top-seeded doubles pair of N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan got off to a winning start, as did second seeds Chandril and Lakshit Sood.

Balaji and Vardhan, ranked 586 in the world, cleaned up their opponents N Ballekere Ravikumar and Suraj Prabodh 6-1, 6-3 using a combination of excellent service games and baseline-to-net manoeuvres. After a fierce first set, the victors were more forgiving in the second, dropping their serve once and breaking serve four times to seal the issue in over an hour.

Indian twins Chandril and Lakshit Sood, took the long route to progress to the second round in a hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 win over Haadin Bava and Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan.

The 1357-ranked pair worked hard to clinch the first, but succumbed to unforced errors and aggressive play at the net from their opponents. The twins bickered about line calls with the chair umpire in a set they lost after being neck-and-neck at 4-4. However, they gathered their wits and triumphed in the day’s first tie-break to end the 90-minute match.

Results: Singles: Mohit Mayur bt Kaliyanda Poonacha 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Karunaday 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 6-0, 6-3 ; Mukund Sai Kumar bt  Jeson Patrombon 6-3, 6-1; Hong Kit Wong bt Aryan Goveas  4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Doubles:  N Sriram Balaji/Vishnu Vardhan bt N Ballekere Ravikumar/Suraj Prabodh 6-1, 6-3; Lakshit/Chandril Sood bt Haadin Bava/Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-4, 4-6, 10-7