Double for Khanna, Kirrtane,Vasant
Fancied players Aditya Khanna, Nitin Kirrtane and Mayur Vasant lived up to expectations in the respective age groups to walk away with double glory in the Taste’L GSTA S200 ITF Mumbai 2021, in association with L&T Mutual Fund, which concluded at Practennis, here, on Friday.
While all three had facile wins in their singles encounters, they were made to toil hard in the doubles finals, especially Khanna and his partner Vipin Sirpaul in the 35+ category, who were taken the distance by Ajai Selvaraj and Rewant Datta, but held their nerves at the crucial juncture to win in the super tie-breaker. Kirrtane and partner Nikhil Rao complemented each other on court to quell the challenge from Moorthy and Bhatia 6-1, 6-2 for Rao’s maiden ITF title.
The women’s singles title was won by Dr. Jyotsna Patel, who defeated Nazneen Rahman
6-2, 6-2.
Khanna was expected to be given a tougher fight by Sandeep Pawar, who managed to stay in the game in the first set, but his legs gave away in the second and he lost 3-6, 0-6. Kirrtane and Mayur Vasant were just too good for their opponents N Choudhary and A Bharwadwaj respectively and scored easy, identical 6-1, 6-1 victories.
The best match of the day was the 35+ doubles with Khanna and partner Sirpaul winning the first set 6-3. However Selvraj raised his game in the second, controlling the net to guide his mate Rewant and win 6-0 to level the match, They dominated the super tie-break to race to a 8-4 lead, before it all unraveled for them. Rewant missed two sitters at the net and Khanna hot two winners to help them come from behind and win it 10-8.