Divij Sharan had managed the seemingly unimaginable feat of knocking out last week’s winner and fourth seed Yuki Bhambri in Thursday’s quarter-finals of the $15,000 ITF Futures at the DLTA Complex. On Friday, an early one-set lead against second seed Vishnu Vardhan may perhaps have allowed him the chance to think of his first singles final since October last year, but the rain that followed the opening set in the first semi-final of the day washed all such hopes away. During the rain delay, that lasted more than an hour, the first set didn’t appear to particularly weigh on Vishnu’s mind, as he shared a few laughs with the ITF supervisor while Divij preferred to do a few stretches under the makeshift tarpaulin roof next to the courts. But when the players returned to complete the match, the momentum had swung all the way to Vishnu’s side of the net. He broke his fifth-seeded opponent in the ninth game of the second to take the match into a third, and stayed ahead in the final set to wrap up the match 4-6 6-3 6-1. “Maybe he was thinking too much during the rain break since he had already won the first set. I didn’t think about the match at all, I just relaxed,” said Vishnu after the match. “This week the way I’m playing, maybe it isn’t as good as last week’s because I feel a bit tired, but mentally I feel stronger,” he added.

In the final, he will play compatriot Rohan Gajjar, who gets another chance to win the title that slipped out of his grasp in last week’s final. Gajjar outlasted top seed Kento Takeuchi in a gritty three-setter which went the distance to the third-set tie-break, ending 6-4 4-6 7-6 (5).

... contd.