Southpaw and wild card Prajneesh Gunneswaran continued his dream run in the Raman Sports Trust ITF Mena's Futures tennis tournament as he defeated sixth seed Vinayak Sharma Kaza 6-2, 6-4, en route to the singles final here Friday.
In the final, Gunneswaran, who sent down a total of four aces and won 75 per cent of his service points, takes on second seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan who wore down Sidharth Rawat 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3.
While Gunneswaran was on song, Kaza was under pressure from the start.A Gunneswaran's big returns broke Kaza in the very first game and it set the tone for the match. Gunneswaran broke again for a 5-1 lead before serving out the set.
In the second set, Gunneswaran broke Kaza Ain the fifth game and went on to wrap up the match in style for a berth in the final.
In the other semi-final, Neduchezhiyan started in a sluggish manner as a highly motivated Rawat broke him in the third game and then held serve to lead 3-1.A
Neduchezhiyan then got into his own and served with precision and broke Rawat to level at 4-all. Thereafter, games went to serve leading to the tie-breaker which Rawat clinched.
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Neduchezhiyan kept his cool and started the second set in a positive fashion and two service breaks saw him pouch the set comfortably.
The third set followed the pattern of the second with Neduchezhiyan jumping to a 4-1 lead before closing out the match even as Rawat seemed to wilt under pressure.
The results (semi-finals): WC-Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt 6-Vinayak Sharma Kaza 6-2, 6-4; 2-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Sidharth Rawat 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles (final): 1- Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan / N Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt 4-Markos Kalovelonis (RUS) / Timur Khabibulin (Kaz) 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.