Rohtak ITF Futures: Top-seed Balaji stumbles in quarterfinals

The quarterfinal jinx continued to haunt top-seed N Sriram Balaji of India as he was shown the championship exit door by fifth seeded Vijayant Malik in the 15,000 USD ITF Futures being played at the hard courts of the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex in Rohtak in Haryana.

Sriram hardly played like a top-seed and caved in meekly 2-6, 4-6 to Vijayant in a one-sided last-eight stage contest.

The 335^th ranked Indian, who was seeded second in the Chandigarh ITF Futures and also ousted in the quarterfinals, struggled to hold his serve and committed a plethora of unforced errors which made things easy for Vijayant.

Vijayant has been acquiring a giant-killing image in recent times – he toppled the top seed Yuki Bhambri in the quarterfinals of the Chandigarh ITF Futures and reached before losing to Saketh Myneni in the final.

Vijayant would now lock horns with fourth seeded fellow country mate Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan, who dropped a set before prevailing over Vinayak Sharma Kaza 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Vijant earlier made it to the singles quarterfinals after disposing off fellow Indian Ronak Manuja in convincing fashion 6-1, 6-1.

He had annihilated Ronit Singh Bisht 6-0, 6-1 in the first round.

Meanwhile, third seed Saketh Myneni, fresh from winning the Chandigarh ITF Futures, also romped into semifinals drubbed Vignesh Peranamallur 6-3, 6-0 to book an appointment with second seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who thumped Anvit Bendra 6-0, 6-1.

Saketh earlier pipped country mate Abhijeet Tiwari 6-0, 6-3 in the second round. He got the better of Dhruv Goyal 6-0, 6-1 in the first round.

It may be worth recalling things have looking bright for the Indian women in the ITF Futures circuit.

Ankita Raina had finished runners-up in the recent $10,000 ITF Lucknow Futures tennis tournament in Lucknow, losing to Japan’s Emi Mutaguchi.

The Lucknow event was Ankita’s fourth consecutive ITF Futures final.

The national grasscourt champion had clinched the Chennai Futures a week before the Lucknow tourney.

The Gujarat girl, who is now based in Pune, had also finished runners-up in the two ITF Futures tourneys in Hyderabad last March.

Her impressive run saw her jump 26 spots in the WTA rankings to be placed 463 – thus becoming the highest ranked women’s singles player in the country, overtaking Rushika Sunkara, who is now placed 481^st.