Digvijay Pratap Singh played a delightfully explosive game with remarkable accuracy and variation (in serve) to clinch the USD 15,000 ITF men’s tennis title at the DLTA Complex on Sunday.
The entertainment was restricted to 38 minutes in the final as the French fifth seed Florent Bax retired after losing the first set 2-6. The third-seeded Digvijay converted two of three break points to race away with the first set, even as Bax struggled to sustain his energetic game owing to restricted movement caused by a twisted ankle suffered during his semifinal victory against the top seed.
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Quite thrilled with his maiden triumph, the 22-year-old Digvijay expressed his gratitude to coach Arun Kumar at the National Tennis Centre (NTC), especially for helping him fight the semifinal against Niki Poonacha when he was contemplating to call it quits.
Digvijay himself had twisted his ankle in the second round against Chirag Duhan. “I have been going to Anand Dubey every day for treatment. In the semifinal, at 1-6, 0-2 I was about to quit, but the pain-killer worked and I could fight back,” said Digvijay.
Quite gracefully, Bax conceded that “Digvijay deserved to win.”
On his part, Digvijay suggested Bax needs to be treated by Anand so he could continue to play over the next three weeks, as the Frenchman was otherwise planning to return home.
It has been a good season for Digvijay who lost the final in Vietnam in June, to Nam Hoang Ly, the Wimbledon junior doubles champion with Sumit Nagal in 2015. He also made two semifinals in the professional circuit in Colombo, apart from reaching his second successive final in the Fenesta National Championship at the same venue. “We have decided to focus on singles these four weeks, to get the best results and boost the rank,” observed Digvijay, happy that the constructive ideas were working fine.
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