Competing at the National Tennis Championships may not look a progressive move as far as their careers go but Vishnu Vardhan and N Sriram Balaji, who have 13 ITF singles titles between them, have their own valid reasons to be here.
Someone who played alongside leander Paes and against the likes of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Michael llodra at the 2012 london Olympics and actually made a good impression, Vardhan is still grinding it hard on the ITF Circuit.
A prize purse of Rs three lakhs, which can take care of his expenses on the ITF circuit for at least two-three weeks plus a wild card for Delhi Open Challengers lured him back here to defend his title. “I was injured for almost two years. last year was my comeback year and I won nationals. I have played four singles final this season, and made it to 500 after starting at 900 (rankings). I have always liked playing nationals. The prize money is good and there is a chance to win a wild card. So incentive is there, why should I not play here,” said Vardhan.
“If you see from other perspective, if I don’t get into top-250 by the end of this year, I won’t get a direct entry into Delhi Open. And if you win 3 lakhs it will last 3-4 weeks. My equipment and apparel are taken care of by my employer ONGC but added money will make sense. And this week there is no other tournament I could play. So why not.
Balaji, on the other hand, is the top seed but had to come through qualifying since he sent his entry late.
“I am here after six years. I was trying to play Challengers in Egypt but that got cancelled. Then I tried to play a few Futures there but there was festival time in Egypt and I did not get the visa on time. And another reason is that my sister is getting married later this month for which I need to have two-three weeks off, so if I don’t play here that will be like a month and a half break from tennis. So I decided to play here and get some matches. So I can go for Pune Challenger without going out of shape,” Balaji said.
Earlier, second seed Vardhan opened his title defence with a 6-3 6-4 win over Manish Sureshkumar in the men’s singles event on Tuesday.
Also advancing was lakshit Sood, who outslugged seasoned left-hander Nitten Kirrtane 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-2 in his opening round at the DlTA complex. Former champion and fourth seed VM Ranjeet took time to settle down before downing Prajwal Dev 4-6 6-3 6-1.
In the women’s singles, defending champion Prerna Bhambri defeated 16-year-old Mihika Yadav 6-4 6-1.