New Delhi, Aug 22 (Inditop.com) Vishnu Vardhan fought hard but could not stop the crafty South Korea Young-Jun Kim from winning the $10,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at the DLTA stadium here Saturday.
The top-seeded Indian, who was looking to bag back-to-back ITF titles at the venue, went down 3-6, 6-7(3) to the 29-year-old Kim. For the Korean, it was his second consecutive ITF title, having won a tournament at home last month.
Vardhan, later in the day, teamed up with compatriot Ashutosh Singh to win the doubles title, beating Britons Chris Eaton and Sean Thornley in a gruelling final 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-8.
Kim served big and played a solid all-court game to put pressure on Vardhan. He didn’t allow the Indian to settle by invariably mixing the pace of his shots, forcing him into errors.
He broke the 22-year-old Vardhan in the fourth game of the match and served out the first set in the ninth, though after saving a break point.
The Indian served strongly in the second set besides showing a better footwork, but couldn’t breach the Korean’s serve. The set went into a tie-break and Kim held his nerve to finish the match after an hour and 50 minutes.
“I am of course disappointed to lose, but I am happy the way I played. I could have done better at the net. I played well in the second set, but in the tie-break I couldn’t get my first serve in,” Vishnu said.
The win will fetch Kim $1,300 and 17 ATP points while Vishnu will pocket $900 and 9 ATP points.
rounak