Lakshmi Prabha and Dakshineshwar are champions

Shekar Veeraswamy wins wheelchair event

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.