Jamshedpur, Nov 14: Dream run for unseeded Rohith Hari Balaji ended in the hands of 5th seeded Chandan Shivaraj at the semi-finals of the Men’s Open Singles at the ongoing Beldih Club AITA Men’s National Ranking Tennis Tournament 2024, been held at the sand-clay courts of the Beldih Club, Jamshedpur.
Tamil Nadu’s Balaji made a confident start as he bagged the first 5 games of the opening set, thereby taking a quick lead of 5-0. Here it was the experienced Shivaraj who started surviving on longer points and pulled the set to a tie breaker which eventually went to the 5th seed from Karnataka. In the second, it was more of a one-sided affair as Shivaraj won the match by a straight 7-6(3),6-1. Shivaraj will face 2nd seed from Odisha, Pratyush Mohanty in the summit clash tomorrow. Mohanty, ranked at 60 in the country, took no time to drub the younger Shounak Chatterjee of Bengal as the former won by a comfortable 6-3,6-2 to enter the finals.
The Men’s Doubles title was won by the pair of Chandan Shivaraj and Anand Prakash Gupta as they played the most befitting final of the championship, defeating the top seeded duo of Oges Theyjo Jayaprakash and Arunava Majumder by a nail-biting 6-7(4),6-3,14-12
The Men’s Singles final will start at 9:00 am tomorrow. R N Murthy, Executive In Charge, Tinplate Division, will be present as the Chief Guest at the Closing Ceremony, tentatively scheduled at 12 noon, along with Mukul Vinayak Choudhari, Chief Sports.
