PUNE: Jiri Vesely continued to ride his luck in Pune, saving four match points before defeating second seed Ricardas Berankis 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (7) in the semifinal of the Tata Open Maharashtra on Saturday evening.Having rallied back from a set down in his previous match, against Ilya Ivashka, the 6’6 Czech again set himself a tall task by losing the first set tie-breaker with a double fault. In Berankis, currently ranked 73 in the world, he had a more solid and experienced opponent compared to Ivashka. But the 26-year-old hung in there for just over three hours, defending everything the stocky Lithuanian threw at him to make his first final in an ATP Tour event in five years.

Vesely, a former World No 35, won his first and only ATP title in Auckland, 2015, and his last final was in the same year in Bucharest.Having dropped out of the top-100 due to a series of injuries starting in 2018, Vesely is trying to find his way back up the rankings ladder. And the Czech player has exploited the weaker field in Pune — as compared to the other ATP 250 events in Montpellier and Cordoba — to build some momentum early in the season.

The 26-year-old, who defeated Alexander Zverev in the first round of Wimbledon last year, blasted 28 aces past the 5’9 Berankis to take his tournament tally to 68. But with the Lithuanian taking charge of rallies, he had to use his big wing span to keep the ball in play. Both the players struggled to wrest momentum, neither being able to consolidate the breaks.

While Vesely fell behind and broke back in the very next game in the first two sets, it was the Czech who got the first break of serve in the decider but could not hold on to it. Vesely conceded the first set tie-breaker with a double fault, only to have Berankis return the favour in the second-set breaker.

The Lithuanian has also had some injury concerns in the past and was looking to make a breakthrough of his own. Though he didn’t get the free points on serve as Vesely did, Berankis kept up the pressure with aggressive play. The match turned into an absolute arm-wrestle in the decider and if anything was to give in, it would be Vesely’s forehand, the weakest shot on court. And as it happened the Czech missed two forehands to give Berankis a 5-3 advantage.Though the latter extended it to 6-3, and held another match point at 7-6, he couldn’t get the job done. Meanwhile, Vesely clinched the contest on his first match point as Berankis missed a backhand down the line on the run.

Ankita wins doubles title
Nonthaburi: Ankita Raina won her third title in two weeks when she triumphed in the final of the USD 25000 ITF women’s doubles event with partner Bibiane Schoofs on Saturday. The top seeded Indo-Dutch team fought off the challenge of Miyabi Inoue and Jia-Qi Kang 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 in the summit clash. PTI