Mandya, Jan 13 The Indian challenge in the men’s singles ended when Karan Singh and Siddharth Vishwakarma bowed out in semifinals of the PET ITF Mandya Open. While Karan Singh lost to Jelle Sels of The Netherlands 1-6, 4-6, Siddharth went down fighting against third seed Orel Kimhi of Israel 6-2, 5-7, 4-6 at the PET Stadium here on Saturday.
After having two second place finishes in the doubles, it was third time lucky for Manish Sureshkumar and his partner Parikshit Somani as the all-Indian duo came back from a set down to lift the doubles trophy after defeating the pair of Woobin Shin of Korea and Karan Singh 4-6, 6-1, 10-8.
In the first semifinals, Karan adopted an aggressive approach which proved detrimental as he lost his serve in the second game itself. The 20-year-old showed a glimpse of recovery when he broke his rival’s serve in the third game but could not sustain the sudden rush of form. Jelle displayed some quality tennis shots and won five games in a row to seal the first set 6-1.
Karan began with renewed zeal in the second set and played some great cross court winners and gained an early break in the second game and went 3-0 up. However, the Indian began committing unforced errors which gave Jelle the upperhand. The 28-year-old who was ranked 127th in the world two seasons ago, served well and often attacked the net which fetched him the next five games and handed him a 5-3 lead. Karan held his serve in the ninth game before Jelle served out for the match that lasted only 70 minutes.
In the second semifinal, National Games champion Siddharth made a breezy start, whipping his forehand and dishing out big serves and took a 3-0 lead with a break in the second game and broke once again in the eight game to take the first set 6-2. The 20-year-old Israeli then began stitching his game in the latter part of the second set where he was 1-3 down but came back to level at 3 and broke Siddharth’s serve in the 11th game before serving out for the set.
In the deciding set, the games went with the serve until the sixth game after which Orel achieved the crucial break in the seventh game and finally served out for the match after both the players had held their respective serves. The match lasted 2 hours and 29 minutes.
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