Britain’s Clarke wins singles title
Top seed Britain’s Jay Clarke won the singles title on the concluding day of the M15 Chandigarh ITF World Tour Tennis Men’s (15K USD prize money) Tournament, organised by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) at the Sector 10 Sports Complex.
Clarke faced a neck-to-neck challenge from third seed Korean Woobin Shin. However, Clarke maintained his dominance over and won the trophy in the last set of the title clash. Both Clarke and Shin sweat hard, as the opening set witnessed back to back long rallies. As the score remain at par, Clarke held back his stamina and marched aggressively against Shin in the tie-break of the opener. He managed to lock the set 7-6(5) in his favour.
The second set started at the same pace, but having put in extra effort in the previous set, Clarke didn’t play with some aggression and trailed. It was moment of joy for Shin as he made a strong comeback by winning the set 4-6.
As the spectators were waiting for another action-packed fight, Clarke made it a one-sided affair as he never allowed Shin to recover. Clarke maintained a good composure, followed a strict serve and played his natural game to win the set without conceding a single game. With this 6-0 third setter stunning win, Clarke lifted the trophy.
In the semifinals, Clarke outclassed Australia’s Stefan Vujic 6-3 7-6(3), while Shin had to put in some extra effort to defeat Indian contender Ishaque Eqbal. Having lost the first set 3-6, Shin made an encouraging comeback by winning the next 6-3. In the final set, Shin and Eqbal performed well, but it was the former who registered a 7-6(2) win to enter the final.
Vishav Bandhu Monga, Chief State Coordinator, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, along with Sudhir Rajpal, Honorary Secretary(CLTA), Dr Reet Mahinder Singh, Member Executive Committee, Megh Raj, Chief Operating Officer, and Y Romen Singh, Director Coaching & Development, distributed the prizes.
