Ankita Raina bags singles tennis crown

Bangalore, April 11 (IANS) Ankita Raina, representing ONGC, proved just too good for Prerna Bhambri (GAIL) in the women’s singles final and romped to a 6-0, 6-0 title triumph in under an hour at the 33rd PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament here Friday.

The 21-year-old Ankita served hard and hit fluent winners with her double-handed backhand against a struggling Prerna, who was unsettled by a spate of double faults and unforced errors.

Meanwhile, top seed Ram Kumar Ramanathan (GAIL) set up a title clash with second seed Vishnu Vardhan (ONGC) in the men’s singles.

Tamil Nadu teenager Ram Kumar overcame a tough challenge from state mate V.M. Ranjeet (ONGC) 6-4, 7-5 in the semi-finals which lasted little over two hours. While Vardhan made the final after his rival Rohan Bopanna, who had won the first set 7-6(8), retired in the second set trailing 2-3, citing fatigue.

The tie between Ram Kumar and Ranjeet was marked by some good rallies and both players set a hot pace, matching each other stroke-for-stroke. However, it was Ram Kumar’s consistency with his returns which saw him get past the gritty Ranjeet.

The first set went with serve before Ram Kumar won it with a break of serve in the 10th game after the two had traded breaks earlier.

Ram Kumar stayed focused on the job at hand in the second set as he went on to clinch the match with a break of serve in the 12th game.

In the other semi-final, Vardhan and Bopanna won most of their big points on their power packed first serves. Vardhan broke in the ninth game to take 5-4 lead but Bopanna struck back to take the 10th.

Eventually, the set spilled into the tie-break where Bopanna, after squandering a 6-3 lead, eventually took it 10-8 after Vardhan had tied at 7-all and even led 8-7.

However, much to the disappointment of his fans, a visibly tired Bopanna called it quits, citing fatigue while trailing 2-3 in the second set.

Vardhan is in line for a double crown as he later won the men’s doubles title, partnering Ranjeet, by defeating Anshuman Dutta and C.S. Mohanty (OIL) 6-1, 6-1.

In the veterans section, IOCL claimed the team title beating OIL 2-1 in the final while ONGC took third spot, defeating BPCL 2-1.