Mankad, Natekar fall by wayside

CHENNAI, March 28: Maharashtra players Harsh Mankad and Gaurav Natekar fell by the wayside succumbing in the best of three decider sets respectively to Tamil Nadu8217;s Vinodh Sridhar and Manoj Mahadevan, in the semi-finals of the Indian Oil Servo Singles Tennis Championship at the Krishnan Tennis Centre, here, today.

In the first semi-final, Sridhar, who upset top seed Marcus Hilpert in the quarter-final yesterday, dropped the first set before outclassing Mankad 2-6 6-2 6-4 in 102 minutes, while in a marathon 145-minute battle, Natekar went down to Mahadevan 3-6 6-3 6-7 3-7.

Mankad8217;s rhythmic strokeplay helped him take the first set, winning four games in a row from two-all. But Sridhar rallied splendidly to take the second and third sets in style.