TN’s Mohammed wins tennis title

Fifth seed Fahad Mohammed of Tamil Nadu produced a fine all-round performance and easily defeated unseeded Pune teenager Atharva Sharma in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the men’s singles final of the JS Pereira Memorial AITA Ranking (Rs 2 lakhs) Men’s Tennis Tournament, organized by the Bandra Gymkhana at the their tennis courts on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Mohammed, who trains at the Just Tennis Academy in Chennai, was quite consistent with his serves and with clever change of tactics he unsettled his 18year-old opponent Sharma, who did well to keep pace till 4-all in the first set.

Mohammed after holding serve in the ninth game forced Sharma into committing a couple of unforced errors to win the 10th game and to take the first set in little less than 45 minutes.

The Chennai-based Mohammed was dominant in the second and snatched a break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and he broke Sharma’s serve for the second time in the eighth game to win the set in 32 minutes and complete a satisfying victory.

Earlier in the doubles finals, the top-seeded pair of Ishaque Eqbal of West Bengal and Yash Yadav of Madhya Pradesh were dominant from the start and easily defeated the unseeded combination of Shivam Dalmia from Delhi and Fahad Mohammed of Tamil Nadu as they breezed to a straight sets 6-1, 6-4 victory.