Chandigarh, Feb 22 (UNI) Top seed N.Sriram Balaji and third seed Sasi Kumar Mukund faced stiff resistance from their respective opponents in the singles second round match in the
15,000 ITF Men's Futures Tennis Tournament at Jorhat Tennis Club in Assam. Unseeded Dalvinder Singh waged a tough battle against Balaji before the latter prevailed over in three sets 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes. Balaji unleashed seven aces and committed a double fault. He converted four break points out of eighth. He won 87.5 per cent of service games (14 out of 16). Plucky Dalvinder Singh got four aces on his scorecard besides committing three double faults. He converted two out of four break points. Dalvinder won 10 out of 14 service games (71.4 %). In another closely fought second round outing Sasi Kumar Mukund faced a tough time from qualifier Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND), specially in the first two sets. After fighting for two hours an 20 minutes, Mukund emerged winner by6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-1. Siddharth struggled with his serve as he committed as many as 10 double faults. He also fired five aces. Mukund got one ace to his credit and committed a solitary double faults. Siddharth won two out of seven break points while Mukund converted five break points out of 12. After splitting the first two sets, qualifier Vijayant Malik retired after trailing 3-0 in the final set against Shane Vinsant (USA) who won 3-6 6-3 3-0 retired to move into quarter-final. Results: Singles (2nd round): N.Sriram Balaji (IND) [1] bt Dalwinder Singh 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3, Mateusz Terczynski (POL) bt Kunal Anand (IND) 6-4 6-2; N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) [4] bt Timur Khsbibulin (KAZ) 6-3 6-1; Shane Vinsant (USA) bt Vijayant Malik (IND) 3-6 6-3 3-0 Retired; Haadin Bava (IND) bt Pirmin Haenle (GER) 6-2 6-3; Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND) [3] bt Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) 6-7(6) 7-5 6-1; Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) bt Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) [8] 6-3 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan (IND) [2] bt Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) 6-3 7-6(3) . Doubles (Ist round): Mateusz Terczynski (POL) / Jose Fco. Vidal Azorin (ESP) bt Faisal Qamar (IND) / Parikshit Somani (IND) 6-3 7-5. UNI XC SHS RJ BL2116