Wild card Kirtane gives seeded Prashanth a scare
Veteran Nitin Kirtane belied his age to give second seed Vijay Prashanth a scare before bowing out in the men`s singles pre quarters of the Rs 7-lakh prize money L and T All India Open Tennis.
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Mumbai: Veteran Nitin Kirtane belied his
age to give second seed Vijay Prashanth a scare before bowing
out in the men`s singles pre quarters of the Rs 7-lakh prize
money L and T All India Open Tennis tournament here today.
The Pune-born, left-handed Kirtane, a former national
champion but on the wrong side of 30 in age, waged a grim
three-hour battle against Tamil Nadu`s 23-year-old
Prashanth before he was beaten 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5 in the Juhu
Vile Parle Gymkhana-conducted tournament.
In the deciding third set, Prashanth was leading 2-1
when he suffered severe cramps in thighs and had to take an
injury time out. At that stage it looked like curtains for the
TN player as he struggled to move.
Then Prashanth came up with a couple of timely aces when
serving to save the match at 4-5 and then broke his rival in
the 11th game and followed it by clinching the the 12th game
with a forehand down-the-line winner.
Results:
Men?s singles (OPre-quarter finals): (1) PC Vignesh (AP)
bt Ankit Sachdeva (Dli) 6-1, 6-4; 5-Vivek Shokeen (Dli) bt
Abhijeet Tiwari (Chg) 6-1,7-5; 4-Yannick Nelord (Dli) bt
Shivang Mishra (Dli) 6-2, 6-3; Fariz Mohammed (TN) bt Rajat
Maheshwari (WB) 6-1, 6-2.
(2) Vijay Prashanth (TN) bt Nitin Kirane (Mah) 6-7, 6-2,
7-5; 3-Ashutosh Singh (DLI) bt Mayur Mohit (TN) 6-1, 6-1;
7-Aditya Madkekar (Mah) bt Haddin Bava (Mah) 6-4, 7-6 (7-2);
6-Mithun Murali (TN) bt Shahbaz Khan (Mah) 6-4, 6-4.
PTI
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