Pune teenager Atharva Sharma recovered from a sloppy start and the loss of the first set and then produced a tremendous fight back to overcome Mumbai’s Shahbaaz Khan in three grueling sets, winning at 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the men’s singles semi-final of the J.S. Pereira Memorial AITA Ranking (Rs 2 lakhs) Men’s Tennis Tournament, organized by the Bandra Gymkhana and played at the Bandra Gym tennis courts on Friday morning.
Pune’s Atharva Sharma defeated Mumbai’s Shahbaaz Khan in three sets 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a Men’s singles semi-finals of the J.S. Pereira Memorial AITA Ranking (Rs 2 lakhs) Tennis Tournament.
Fifth seed Fahad Mohammed of Tamil Nadu, the lone seeded player left standing, continued with his impressive form and easily defeated Gujarat’s unseeded Vaidik Munshaw 6-1, 6-3 to take his place in the summit round.
The unseeded 18-year-old Pune youngster Sharma found the early morning start a bit of a struggle and was slow in his movements found it difficult to keep the ball in play. The 26-year-old Khan seized the opportunity and quickly won the opening set to wrest the advantage.
That was the perfect wake-up call for Sharma and he responded well by racing to a 4-1 lead in the second. But, Khan made a strong reply and won the next three games to level scores at 4-all. Later, Sharma snatched a crucial break in the 11th game and then served out for the set, winning it with an ace to take the match into the decider.
In the decider, both Sharma and Khan tried different tactics, including slowing down the game between points to gain the upper hand. They also struggled with their serves as Sharma was broken in the second and eight games, but held serve in the fourth and eight games. However, Sharma who played more consistently in the third managed to break Khan’s service four times; in the first, third, seventh and ninth games to win the third set and wrap up the match.
The finals will be played on Saturday evening.
Results – Men’s singles (semi-finals): 5-Mohammed Fahad (TN) bt Vaidik Munshaw (GJ) 6-1, 6-3;
Atharva Sharma (MH) bt Shahbaaz Khan (MH) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.