Rethin, Vaidehee crowned Fenesta Open champions

Unseeded Rethin Pranav of Tamil Nadu and top-seeded Vaidehee Chaudhari of Gujarat clinched the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively at the 29th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship here on Saturday.
Pranav, who entered the main draw through the qualifiers, defeated Nitin Kumar Sinha of the Railways 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the final, while Vaidehee beat young sensation Maaya Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 6-3, 6-3 to win the women’s singles title for the second time in her career.
The 17-year-old Pranav began the title clash with accurate shots along the baseline, quickly taking a 4-1 lead before Nitin won three back-to-back games to level the score at 4-4. Pranav then broke his opponent’s serve to grab the set.
Nitin refused to go down easily and lost only two games in the second set. The third set saw a tough contest in the beginning as the scores were level at 2-2. Pranav then won four games on the trot to win the final.
The women’s singles final that lasted more than 1 hour and 30 minutes saw big rallies. Maaya bagged the first game before Vaidehee came roaring back to win three games in a row to take a 3-1 lead.
She then lost a game but did not lose momentum, taking a 5-2 lead with her sublime baseline shots. Maaya won one more game to bring the score to 5-3. Vaidehee then broke her opponent’s serve to win the first set.
Maaya struggled to find her feet in the second set as Vaidehee continued the onslaught of ferocious forehands. The Gujarat player broke Maaya’s serve multiple times to take a 4-0 lead before the 15-year-old fought back to win three games in a row.
However, Vaidehee denied her opponent a chance to level the match and won the next game to clinch the title.
In a thrilling boys U-18 final, Karnataka’s Aradhya Kshitiz defeated Shanker Heisnam of Manipur 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 to grab the title. The girls U-18 title went to Maharashtra’s Prisha Shinde who got the better of Diya Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 in the final.