Myneni prevails in thrilling encounter

Third seed Saketh Myneni staved off a stern ch­­a­­llenge from seventh-seeded Hyun-Woo Nam and secured his place in the final — wherein he would battle Antoine Escoffier—in the Dr KCG Verghese- GNC ITF Futures.

Myneni broke in the fifth game but undid himself when he conce­­d­ed the eighth game. Howe­v­e­r, he broke him again in the 11th and made it count as he clinched the set 7-5, though not without Nam’s belated fi­­g­­htback. An unfazed, Nam broke Myneni in the eighth game and held onto his advantage to take the set 6-3. The decider was thus nicely set up. Both players clung on for their lives and held their respective serves un­­til the 11th game, when Na­­m­­’s serves eventually creaked, allowing Myneni to procure the crucial break. Nam co­­u­ldn’t muster en­­o­­ugh courage to make another comeback.

This offers Myneni a shot at his second successive title, provided he sees the back of fourth seed Escoffier, who breezed past sixth-seeded N  Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 6-3.