Lakshmi Prabha and Dakshineshwar won the women’s and men’s singles titles at the Indium Software Tamil Nadu tennis championships 2022 on Saturday.
Laksmi Prabha saved a match-point and went on to beat Sai Samhitha 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(6).
Lakshmi started strongly to go 5-1 up in the first set before Samhitha levelled the scores at 5-5. Eventually, in a tense tie-break, Lakshmi prevailed 7-5 before losing the second set tamely 1-6. With momentum on her side, Samhitha led 4-2 in the decider but Lakshmi fought back to draw level and force the set into a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Samhitha took the early lead and even had a match-point at 6-5 but faltered when it mattered, losing the next three points and the title.
In the men’s final, Dakshsineshwar served smoothly and powerfully to dominate the match against Guhan Rajan 6-0, 6-3. He served two aces and hit numerous winners to seal the opening set without trouble. He then took a 3-0 lead before Guhan Rajan found his groove, but it was too late.
The winners took home prize money of Rs 75,000 each.
Earlier, in the AITA-ranking wheelchair event final, Shekar Veeraswamy of Karnataka downed local favourite D. Mariappan 6-1, 6-1.
