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Ashutosh storms into the final, meets Vignesh
Ashutosh Singh will play P.C. Vignesh in the men’s final of the National Grasscourt Tennis Championship on Saturday. The women’s final will be between Sheethal Goutham and Ankita Raina, reports HT Correspondent.
Ashutosh Singh will play PC Vignesh in the men’s final of the National Grasscourt Tennis Championship on Saturday. The women’s final will be between Sheethal Goutham and Ankita Raina.
Ashutosh, the 2007 national hardcourt champion, took out second-seed N. Vijayshankar Prashanth of Tamil Nadu 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in the semis on Friday.
Vignesh, 22, stopped the giant-killing run of qualifier Vivek Shokeen, beating the Delhi player 6-4, 6-4 for his maiden final berth. He had beaten top seed Ranjith in the quarter-final on Thursday.
Women’s top seed Rushmi Chakravarthy followed Ranjeet out of the tournament, losing 3-6, 6-1, 3-6 to Goutham in semis. Goutham is in line for a double, having entered the doubles final too, with Sweta Solanki. They beat Radhika Kanitkar and Shruti Dhawan 4-6, 7-5, 10-7.
Raina, a wild card, ousted second seed Shivika Burman coming back to win their semi-final 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Shivika though entered the doubles final. Pairing with Treta Bhattacharya, they defeated Aishwarya Agarwal and Tanvi Shah 4-6, 7-5, 10-7.
His style best suited for grass, it wasn’t till the 11th game of the second set that Ashutosh got into gear. The third set was a breeze for this player from Delhi, Ashutosh winning in 35 minutes. The first two were anything but. Ashutosh served 10 aces in the opening set but the first time he struggled with serve, in the 11th game, Prasad made him pay with a break. The set lasted 77 minutes. Ashutosh was up by a break in the eighth game of the second set but hopes of an early finish were doused when Prasad broke back immediately to make the set score 5-4. Games went with the serve till a decisive break till a decisive break in the 12th game had Prasad levelling the match. But having got into his stride finally, Ashutosh ensured there would be no more comebacks.
The men’s doubles final featuring Divij Sharan and Shokeen against Prashant and Mithun Murali was tied at one-set all when play stopped for the day and will be completed on Saturday.
