Vijay sets up title clash with unseeded Rawat

Top seed Vijay Sundar Prashanth won a hard-fought semi-final against Sumit Nagal to set up a title clash with unseeded Sidharth Rawat in the Justice P S Kailasam Centenary GNC ITF Men's Futures Tennis tournament here at the Gandhi Nagar Club courts today.
Vijay battled past the eight-seeded Nagal 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the last-four encounter, while Rawat beat Bowen Quyang of China 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 in the second semi-final.
Trailing 3-4 in the first set, Vijay capitalised on two double faults from Nagal to pound his opponent with powerful serves and strong ground strokes to win 6-3.
The second set started with three continuous breaks of serves as Vijay led 3-1. Sumit fought back and began to serve with better rhythm played his best tennis of the day when he made two thunderous serves to hold serve and then follow it up with two cracking returns to break Vijay and close out the set 6-4.

In the decider, Vijay nullified the second set loss with good all round tennis and went on to lead 4-1 before winning the set and match at 6-2.
In the second last-four encounter, unseeded Bowen Ouyang of China seemed out-of-sorts while Rawat was in his zone as he oozed confidence. Rawat ran away with the first set in a short time with a score of 6-1.
In the second, Bowen found his rhythm and range and came up with numerous winners on both flanks with effortless ease and interspersed with lovely drop shots managed a 6-2 win. However, Bowen looked drained and Rawat blanked him 6-0 to progress to final.