Rethin Pranav battled bouts of cramps to score an incredible 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Nitin Kumar Sinha to clinch the men’s title in the Fenesta National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.
The 17-year-old Rethin, a product of Rohan Bopanna Academy, who trains in Chennai these days, was remarkably composed in battling a tough situation when he was drained of energy, to the extent that Nitin was toying with him midway.
Rethin looked to have regained energy with every sip of water as he kept hydrating himself, even between points, and called the shots in the climax, much to the discomfiture of Nitin.
The champion’s cheque of Rs.3,00,000 apart, it was indeed a fairy tale in Indian tennis, as Rethin had made the main draw as a lucky-loser. After he had lost the third and final qualifying round to Bhicky Sagolshem, winning four games, Rethin got lucky, as his name was drawn to fill the lone vacancy in the main draw.
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Rethin was in fact taking the spot of the defending champion Siddharth Vishwakarma, the Davis Cupper, who opted out of the tournament, causing the vacancy.
After having waited in vain for a few days, hoping for a lucky loser spot at the US Open junior event in New York last month, Rethin could really appreciate the tide turning in his favour.
He showed that he could hit pretty sharp when required and had loads of patience to stay in the rallies. He is indeed a big boy with a big game, and a bright future ahead.
There was no such fairy tale ending for the 15-year-old Maaya, the qualifier who had dropped only 29 games in all in winning the earlier seven matches.
Vaidehi Chaudhari, the champion of 2022 and the runner-up last year to Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, was far too fluent and consistent as she led 6-3, 5-0 before Maaya could get a grip on the proceedings.
The girl from Ahmedabad, who has been trained by coach Jignesh Raval from childhood, Vaidehi overcame bouts of nerves in the climax to close out the match 6-3, 6-3.
Maaya was understandably disappointed that she did not play her best in the final, even though she got the biggest pay cheque of Rs.2,00,000 in her fledgling tennis career. There was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind in the packed arena, that Maaya would entertain tennis fans around the world in the time to come.
Aradhya Kshitij overcame stiff competition from Shanker Heisnam to clinch the under-18 boys title, while Prisha Shinde recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Diya Ramesh for the under-18 girls title.
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