Vignesh stuns 3rd seed Manish to advance into men’s singles final

Unseeded Prenamallur Vignesh of Andhra Pradesh stunned third seed Manish Sureshkumar of Tamil Nadu in two sets to set up a title clash with seventh seed Siddharth Vishwakarma of Chhattisgarh who defeated fourth seed Kunal Anand of Delhi, also in straight sets in the second semi-final of 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 afternoon.

Vignesh subdued the seeded Manish winning at 6-3, 62, while Vishwakarma beat back a late challenge from Kunal to post a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory.

Meanwhile, Eetee Maheta of Gujarat and Shweta Chandra Rana of Delhi played with determination and held their nerves to overcome Nidhi Chilumula of Telangana and Rishika Sunkara of Delhi 6-4, 4-6, 119 to claim the women’s doubles crown and the winners’ cash award of Rs 1,00,000 (50,000x2). Nidhi and Rishika received the runners-up prize of Rs 60,000 (30,000x2).

The 30-year-old Vignesh, ranked 30th in the country was in his elements and quashed the aspirations of his younger and higher ranked opponent. The 18year-old Sureshkumar, ranked 17th, was unable to put up a fight and caved in rather meekly as Vignesh romped to a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win, and have a shot at top prize of Rs 2 lakh.

In the second semi-final, seventh seed Siddharth Vishwakarma of Chhattisgarh quite comfortably defeated fourth seed Kunal Anand of Delhi, also winning two sets at 6-2, 7-6(4).

In the tie-breaker Vishwakarma was down 2-4 before he reeled off five successive points to clinch the second set and the match.

In the women’s action, top seed Mahak Jain of Madhya Pradesh tamed fourth seed Nithyaraj Baburaj of Tamil Nadu 6-0, 6-3 in teh first semi-final

Sixth seed Humera Shaikh of Telagana advanced to the final without getting on to the courts as her opponent unseed Mihika Yadav of Maharashtra did not report for the match as she is unwell.