Mumbai : Third seed Haadin Bava overcame Kunal Anand of Delhi to emerge champion, in the Khar Gymkhana All India Men’s Open Tennis Tournament.
Bava lived up to his reputation with an impressive 6-4, 7-5 triumph in a championship round that lasted 95 minutes and earned Rs. 32,500, while Anand received Rs. 22,500.
Giant-killers Jayesh Pungliya and Armaan Bhatia, registered a hard-fought victory to clinch the doubles title.
Pungliya and Bhatia, who shocked top seeds Anvit Bendre and Abdullah Shaikh in the quarter-finals and third seeds Kunal Anand and Saurav Sukul in the semi-finals, overcame Aryan Goveas and Rohan Samant 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) in an all-Maharashtra championship round.
Playing Anand for the first time, Bava, a former top junior in Maharashtra, got off to a dream start when he raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set with breaks in the fifth and seventh games. Though Anand, a double-crown winner here in 2011, broke back in the eighth and held serve to close in at 4-5, Bava held serve to take the set.
Anand put behind the blemish to snatch a 3-1 lead with a break in the fourth game of the second set, but Bava broke right back in the next as both held serve until 5-all. Bava changed the script with a break in the 11th game and held serve for game, set and match when Anand hit a return into the net.
“It was a tough match,” explained Bava. “Kunal played well but I managed to keep the ball in and waited for him to commit the mistakes.”
Results (Final): Haadin Bava bt Kunal Anand (Del) 6-4, 7-5. Doubles (Final): Jayesh Pungliya/Armaan Bhatia (Mah) bt Aryan Goveas/Rohan Samant (Mah) 6-4, 7-6 (7-0).
