Photo – Champions Siddharth Vishwakarma (left) and Mahak Jain posing with the trophy after winning the Men’s and Women’s Singles finals respectively in the AITA Ranking Rs 22 lakh prize-money JVPG Anirudh Desai All-India Open Tennis Tournament 2018, at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana’s tennis courts on Saturday.Jain, Vishwakarma emerge champions
Mumbai, February 11: Mahak Jain of Madhya Pradesh and Siddharth Vishwakarma of Chhattisgarh claimed the women’s and men’s singles crowns respectively in the AITA Ranking Rs 22 lakh prize-money JVPG Anirudh Desai All-India Open Tennis Tournament 2018, at the JVPG Tennis courts on Sunday.
The women’s final, which was a contest between 16-year-olds, saw top seed Jain fight hard to smother the challenge from sixth seed Humera Shaikh of Telangana and secure a 7-5, 6-0 triumph, while in the men’s final, Vishwakarma had things in control and romped to a 6-2, 6-4 win against Prenamallur Vignesh of Andhra Pradesh.
Both Jain and Vishwakarma received the Anirudha Desai Trophies and the handsome cash prize of Rs two lakh each. Humera and Vignesh were presented with the runners-up trophies and the cash prize of Rs one lakh each.
The women’s clash saw an absorbing battle for supremacy as both players slugged it out from the baseline. The hard-working Mahak showed tremendous fighting spirit and gradually dismantled the power play of Humera to march to victory.
Humera showed promise at the start and did well to break Mahak early in the third game. The MP girl replied strongly by breaking Humera’s serve in the fourth, but she once again committed a series of unforced errors and dropped serve for the second time as Humera raced to a 4-3 lead. However, the doughty display from Mahak earned her a crucial break in a long eight game which ensured she leveled scores at 4-all.
The marathon eighth game, which witnessed as many as eight deuces, seemed to have drained the energy out of the Telangana girl. Mahak earned another break in the 12th game to clinch the first set. The second set turned out to be a one-sided affair which Mahak completely dominated to ran away to a 6-0 win and emerge champion.
The men’s final saw the 23-year-old seventh seed Siddharth play aggressively from the start and although the 30-year-old Vignesh tried to put up a fight he was not quite up to the task as the 23-year-old Chhattisgarh player raced to victory.
Meanwhile, Anirudh Chandrasekar of Telangana and Peranamallur Vighnesh Andhra Ptadesh combined well to overcome the Tamil Nadu pair of Manish Sureshkumar and Prithvi Sekhar in a long drawn men’s doubles final, winning the ‘super’ tie-breaker, to snatch a 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 triumph and and the winners’ cash award of Rs 1,00,000 (50,000x2). The Tamil Nadu duo received the runners-up prize of Rs 60,000 (30,000x2).
Earlier, Niki Poonacha of Andhra Pradesh and Rishika Sunkara of Delhi easily defeated Paras Dahiya of Haryana and Eetee Maheta of Gujarat 6-3, 6-4 to claim the mixed doubles crown.
Results – Women’s singles (finals): 1-Mahak Jain (MP) bt 6-Humera Shaikh (TS) 7-5, 6-0.
Men’s singles (semi-finals): 7-Siddharth Vishwakarma (CG) bt Prenamallur Vignesh (AP) 6-2, 6-4.
Men's doubles (finals): Anirudh Chandrasekar (TS)/ Peranamallur Vighnesh (AP) bt Manish Sureshkumar (TN)/ Prithvi Sekhar (TN) 6-4, 4-6, 11-9.
Mixed doubles (finals): Niki Poonacha (AP)/Rishika Sunkara (DL) bt Paras Dahiya (HR)/Eetee Maheta (GJ) 6-3, 6-4.