On a warm Saturday morning at the DLTA, top seeds in both men and women’s section were made to bite the dust. While fourth seed Dalwinder Singh (Punjab) scored a 6-3, 6-4 win over top seed Suraj Prabodh (Karnataka) to take home the men’s title, Mahak Jain of Madhya Pradesh, ranked fifth, outplayed Zeel Desai (Gujarat) 7-5, 6-3 to wear the women’s crown in the Open National tennis championship.
The title winners on Saturday looked well-adapted to the local conditions and displayed steely nerves in crunch situations to hog the limelight.
On papers, Zeel, 18, looked impressive but on court she simply wilted under pressure. Despite being physically stronger than Mahak, she wasn’t able to cover the court well and often failed to retrieve the shots.
On the other hand, the nimble-footed Mahak constantly changed her strategy to collect points. After facing stiff resistance in the first set, the second set proved less strenuous for Mahak as her rival ran out of steam. Mahak often hit deep to unnerve her rival.
After the match, the 16-year-old said that she played to her strengths. “I did my homework and cashed in on the weakness of my rival. At times I gifted away points but stayed cool. It helped me rejoice in the end.”
Men’s champion Dalwinder Singh too looked focused. Singh had lost in the quarter-finals in the last edition of the event. But this time around, he had different plans. “My initial goal was to reach the final. Having achieving that, I had nothing to lose in the title clash. So, I went all out. The gameplan worked in my favour,” he told Hindustan Times after the title triumph.
{{/usCountry}}Men’s champion Dalwinder Singh too looked focused. Singh had lost in the quarter-finals in the last edition of the event. But this time around, he had different plans. “My initial goal was to reach the final. Having achieving that, I had nothing to lose in the title clash. So, I went all out. The gameplan worked in my favour,” he told Hindustan Times after the title triumph.
{{/usCountry}}Prabodh said it wasn’t his day. “He (Singh) had the upper hand from the start and I wasn’t able to respond well. After losing the first set, I did make efforts in the second set but in the end I just fell short of the match-winner,” he said.
Results (finals)
Men: Singles: Dalwinder Singh (Punjab) bt Suraj R Prabodh (Karnataka) 6-3, 6-4.
U-18: Sacchitt Sharma (Delhi) bt Dhruv Sunish (Maharashtra) 6-3, 6-4.
Women: Mahak Jain (Madhya Pradesh) bt Zeel Desai (Gujarat0 7-5, 6-3.
U-18: Vaidehi Chaudhri (Gujarat) bt Akansha A Bhan (Gujarat) 6-3, 6-0.