Kannan, Chakravarthy champs

Unseeded Vijay Kannan of Tamil Nadu and Rushmi Chakravarthy reigned supreme in the men's and women's singles respectively in the DSCL National Open tennis championship in Delhi on Sunday.

In the finals, Kannan upset top seed Rohan Bopanna 6-4,6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in a gruelling match, which lasted 150 minutes, while his state-mate, Rushmi Chakravarthy defended her women's crown, beating Sheetal Goutham 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 20 minutes.

Earlier, fifth seed Isha Lakhani (Maharashtra) overpowered Samrita Sekar (TN) to lift the girls' under-18 title, while eighth seed R Arun Prakash (Andhra Pradesh) beat Somdev K.Varman (TN) to claim the boys' title.

Lakhani waged a grim battle before downing Samrita 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-1 while Prakash took little over 90 minutes to oust Somdev Varman 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Rushmi used her serve with telling effect, as Sheetal found it tough to return. The top seed's serve and volley game proved very effective. She controlled the game throughout and with her crafty returns had little difficulty in retaining the title.

Earlier, Kannan managed a shock victory over the top seed after being down 0-3 in the first set.

The key to the whole match lay in Kannan's ability to respond to Rohan's blistering serve.

Kannan later said concentration proved to be his best asset in overpowering Rohan's big serves.

"I did not let anything affect me. Though Rohan had a piercing serve, my concentration got the better of him," he said.

Kannan had a poor start, losing his serve in the second game of the match and trailed 0-3. When it seemed Rohan would have a cakewalk, Kannan fought his way back in the first set by showing commendable concentration.

The second set began with tough exchanges from both sides and it went to nine deuces. Kannan picked up his game to break Rohan's serve in the tenth game and win the second set 6-4.

The game reached its best in the third set which saw long rallies with both players fighting for every inch in the game. At 5-5, it could have been anybody's game. Rohan pulled up his socks to break Kannan to go up 6-5 and then held his own to win the set 7-5.

The crowd cheered both the players as the match went into the fourth set, a rarity in the National Open, which mostly witnesses lop-sided matches.

The fourth set was a tame affair with Kannan cruising through in the first four games without meeting any challenge from Rohan. Rohan made a last-ditch attempt to get back into the game but the effort proved futile.