Karunuday Singh stunned everyone to score 6-2, 6-3 winning over second seed compatriot Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and crashing into the singles semi-finals of the MPTA ITF Men's Futures tennis tournament in Chennai on Thursday. The tournament is being conducted by Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNDA).
In fact, the match was much closer. After going down by 4-2 in the first set, Jeevan struck a number of moon balls to disturb the rhythm of a clean-hitting and volley of Singh. Apparently, the distortion in pace gave the desired effect as it induced a lot of errors. The games which quite often went the distance yielded only half a dozen points. A sole break in the second during 4-3 was adequate for Singh and eventually he served out the match.
Actually, the eighth seeded Karunuday served strongly and played according to a plan to get the better of a very uncertain Jeevan in the first set. He retained the pressure to breeze past in the second set quite comfortably. Later in the afternoon, Jeevan resorted to some adjustments by combining with N. Sriram Balaji to make his way into the doubles final. The Indian duo will encounter the Japanese pair of Matsui and Bumpei Sato.
On the other side, top seed Sriram Balaji began cautiously to drop the first set before overpowering the sixth seed Bumpei Sato of Japan by 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. He too made his way into the semi-finals.
In another match, third seed Vijayant Malik also marched into the last four round by thrashing a lethargic Garvit Batra in straight sets scoring 6-0 6-3. Top seed Balaji will lock horns with third seed Vijayant Malik who had different routes to enter the semis. Prajnesh Gunnerswaran banged Toshihide Matsui of Japan by 7-5 7-6(3) to finish up the semi-final series. Gunneswaran will clash with Karunuday in the semi-finals.
