Kannan ousts Crowley in ITF Men's Futures

Former National champion Vijay Kannan justified his wild card entry by defeating fifth seeded South African Keith Patrick Crowley 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-0, in the BR Adityan - GNC ITF Men's Futures tennis tournament here Tuesday.

In the first set, Crowley was sharp while Kannan, who has not been playing the circuit regularly these days, was rusty as the South African clinched it 6-3.

In the second set, Kannan's ground strokes found their range and he constantly moved Crowley all around the court, but the South African was up to the task and a tiebreak was inevitable.

Kannan kept his cool to take the tie-break 10-8 and then steamed past his increasingly tiring opponent to take the third to wrap up the match.

The results:

Singles (first round): 2-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Suraj Beniwal 4-0 (retd); Fariz Mohammed bt Lakshit Sood 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; WC-Vijay Kannan bt 5-Keith-Patrick Crowley (RSA) 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-0; 6-Vinayak Sharma Kaza bt Abhijeet Tiwari 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-2; Suraj R Prabodh bt Kunal Anand 7-5, 6-2; Garvit Batra bt Gurvinder Mann 6-1, 6-3; Vignesh Veerabadran bt Rithvik Anand 6-4, 6-3; Jui-Chen Hung (TPE) bt Sagar Manjanna 7-6(1), 1-0 (retd); Chandril Sood bt Sidharth Rawat 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2; 7-Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Zach Itzstein (AUS) 6-3, 6-1; 3-Vijayant Malik bt Vignesh Peranamallur 7-6(4), 6-1.