Reddy-made for Nationals

“It’s turning out to be a long day,” said Nitin after he and Sandeep Kirtane lost the doubles final to Gaurav Natekar and Vikram Venkatraghavan immediately after the singles final.

The second seeded Reddy — who had lost in the finals of the Nationals four times — collected Rs 43,000 for his efforts and avenged his loss to Kirtane in the nationals on grass last year. Reddy has, however, beaten Kirtane four times this year, twice on clay in the National Games in Bangalore and once at Century Club, again in Bangalore.

Reddy made the first breakthrough. Two cross court backhands down the line gave him the break in the fifth game. However, he hit a forehand long and netted the next to let Kirtane off the hook in the next game. The 23-year-old Reddy then erred twice on his backhand to let Kirtane walk away with the set at 6-4.

Reddy then defaulted twice — to give Kirtane the advantage and then again at break point — to lose his serve in the first game of the second set.The errors were, however, an exception. Reddy hit 13 forehand and 15 backhand winners in a match which he began dominating completely from the middle of the second set.

At 3-1 up, Kirtane inexplicably fell apart. A long rally in this game with Kirtane serving ended with an overhead winner by Reddy and was followed by a fierce backhand winner by the Andhra player to achieve the break. Kirtane, from then on, looked completely fatigued and most of the time just did not attempt to retrieve the ball.

“I felt drained, as if all energy had left me,” the 23-year-old Kirtane said after the match. Reddy said, “He was playing well, with good control and then he just stopped doing anything.”

Reddy took the set at 6-4.

His confidence up and his opponent’s shattered, Reddy played “as well as he ever has”. There were winners all over the place, 12 aces in the match from the lanky second seed’s arsenal.

He just blew a defenseless Kirtane — who was not helped by the six double faults and umpteen unforced errors he committed — in the next two sets. From 1-1 in the third set, Reddy won six games in a row. And again, from 1-1 in the fourth set, the next five successive games were his. While the first two sets took an hour and 23 minutes, the last two got over in 48 minutes.

Results (all finals)

Men’s Singles: Vasudev Reddy (AP) bt Nitin Kirtane (Mah) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles: Gaurav Natekar & Vikram Venkatraghavan bt Sandeep Kirtane & Nitin Kirtane 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-3.