Second seed Vishnu Vardhan was at his fluent best in the climax as he beat David Agung Susanto of Indonesia 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the final of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Saturday.
It was a double crown for the 28-year-old Vishnu who had won the doubles title earlier with Sriram Balaji.
It was commendable fare from the 450th ranked Vishnu, as he had dropped only one set earlier, to Manish Sureshkumar in the first round.
It was the eighth singles title in the professional circuit for Vishnu, who had won his last singles title in Uzbekistan in 2012, when he had reached a career-best rank of 262.
“I became a little defensive in the second set. In the third, I played one of the best aggressive tennis”, said Vishnu who fired 15 aces in the match.
Having won back-to-back singles titles in two three-day events last week in the Asian Tennis Tour (ATT), Vishnu heaped praise on his trainer Mohd. Abdul Latheef.
“To play well in both singles and doubles despite the heat wave was because of a change in my diet suggested by trainer Latheef, which improved my recovery,” said Vishnu.
Vishnu praised his coach C.V. Nagaraj for guiding him well at his Power Tennis Academy in Hyderabad.
“We had worked on certain specifics which fell in place this week, after being a bit rusty last week,” said Vishnu, the ONGC employee, on incorporating a change in his game as advised by his coach.
“The best part was that I was improving with every match. I also thank my partner Balaji for helping me out on days when I was a little tired because of my long singles match,” said Vishnu, who will be competing in the next tournament in Jassowal, Ludhiana.
The result (final):
Vishnu Vardhan bt David Agung Susanto (Ina) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.