Vignesh of Andhra moves into semis of L&T All-India Open tennis tournament

Top seed PC Vignesh of AP had little trouble in packing off fifth seed Delhi’s Vivek Shokeen in straight sets 6-4 7-6 (3) to enter the men’s semifinals of the L&T All-India Open tennis tournament at Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana on Friday.

Vignesh grabbed the early advantage by breaking his opponent in the opening game of the first set. Shokeen stepped up his game in the second set but the top seed always kept his nose ahead.
While Vignesh was a picture of calmness, Shokeen threw his racquet and even kicked the ball after losing a point during the match. Vignesh made a few unforced errors while serving for the match at 5-4 to give his rival a break. The second set went into the tie breaker with Vignesh holding his nerve and winning it in style.

Another quarterfinal was a thriller with the local lad Aditya Madkakar taking on third seed Ashutosh Singh. Aditya, playing with a sore arm, sealed the first set 7-5. Despite an injury time out at 4-1 for a muscle pull to his right leg, it looked like the Andheri boy would finish the match quickly as he got a double break to race off to a 5-1 lead in the second.

The turnaround came as Ashutosh stepped up his game and from 1-5 down he won the second set in a tiebreaker. Ashutosh turned the tide in his favour and wrapped up winning the third set 6-1.
Results:

Men’s singles (QF): (1) PC Vignesh (AP) bt (5) Vivek Shokeen (Del) 6-4 7-6 (3); (6) Mithun Murli (TN) bt Yannick Nelord (Del) 6-3 6-1; (2) Vijay Prashanth (TN) bt Mohd Fariz (TN) 7-6 6-3; Ashutosh Singh (Del) bt Aditya Madkakar (Mah) 5-7 7-6 (3) 6-1. Women’s singles (QF): (1) Sheethal Goutham (Kar) bt Nehal Sahni (Dli) 6-2, 6-0; (4) Rashmi Teltumbe (Mah) bt Nupur Kaul (Mah) 6-4, 6-2; (3)Treta Bhattacharya bt (8) Tanvi Shah (Mah) 6-1,6-2; (Q) Natasha Palha (Goa) bt (2) Shivika Burman (WB) 3-1 (conceded).