Kirtane defies age to qualify for main round of BTA Asian Tennis Tour

Nitin Kirtane defied age to get past younger Ravishankar Sathiyaraj in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the men's singles qualifying final round of the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) organised Asian Tennis Tour here on Thursday.

Vishnu Vardhan was crowned champion of the Central Excise organised Asian tour on Wednesday.

Kirtane, 43, qualified for the main round by winning the first set with a break early and in the second set was 3-5 down but with his backhand slice and attacking forehand came back to level the set at 5-5.

In the tie break, he kept his nerve to clinch the match at 7-5.

In another interesting match, Chinmaya Chauhan Dev beat Beat Archit Jain 6-3, 7-6(8).

Results: Mens Singles Qualifying Final Round:

Niki Kaliyanda Ponacha beat Vashal D Souza 6-0, 6-2; Jagmeet Singh beat Rithvik Anand 6-4, 6-4; Nitin Kirtane beat Ravishankar Sathiyaraj 6-3, 7-6(5); Chinmaya Chauhan Dev beat Archit Jain 6-3, 7-6(8)

--IANS

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