Wild card Kirtane gives seeded Prashanth a scare

Mumbai: Veteran Nitin Kirtane belied his age to give second seed Vijay Prashanth a scare before bowing

out in the men`s singles pre quarters of the Rs 7-lakh prize money L and T All India Open Tennis tournament here today. The Pune-born, left-handed Kirtane, a former national champion but on the wrong side of 30 in age, waged a grim three-hour battle against Tamil Nadu`s 23-year-old Prashanth before he was beaten 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5 in the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana-conducted tournament. In the deciding third set, Prashanth was leading 2-1 when he suffered severe cramps in thighs and had to take an injury time out. At that stage it looked like curtains for the TN player as he struggled to move. Then Prashanth came up with a couple of timely aces when serving to save the match at 4-5 and then broke his rival in the 11th game and followed it by clinching the the 12th game with a forehand down-the-line winner. Results: Men?s singles (OPre-quarter finals): (1) PC Vignesh (AP) bt Ankit Sachdeva (Dli) 6-1, 6-4; 5-Vivek Shokeen (Dli) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (Chg) 6-1,7-5; 4-Yannick Nelord (Dli) bt Shivang Mishra (Dli) 6-2, 6-3; Fariz Mohammed (TN) bt Rajat Maheshwari (WB) 6-1, 6-2. (2) Vijay Prashanth (TN) bt Nitin Kirane (Mah) 6-7, 6-2, 7-5; 3-Ashutosh Singh (DLI) bt Mayur Mohit (TN) 6-1, 6-1; 7-Aditya Madkekar (Mah) bt Haddin Bava (Mah) 6-4, 7-6 (7-2); 6-Mithun Murali (TN) bt Shahbaz Khan (Mah) 6-4, 6-4. PTI