Balaji, Jeevan win their respective matches at Futures Meet

Top Seed Sriram Balaji put up an impressive display and scored a comfortable straight set win over Lakshit Sood, while second seed Jeevan Neduncheziyan staved off a tough challenge from a much improved Sidharth Rawat in the men's singles competition at the MPTA ITF Men's Futures tennis championship here today.
Balaji beat Sood 6-3 6-2 while Jeevan disposed off Siddharth's challenge 7-6 6-4. Prajnesh Gunneswaran upset the fifth seed Keith Patrick Crowley of South Africa in straight sets 6-2 6-4.
In another match, Karunuday Singh, the eighth seed, got the better of an inspired Abhijeet Tiwari in three sets 2-6 6-4 6-1. The two Japanese players Toshihide Matsui and Bumpei Sato recorded straight-set victories over their respective opponents.