Vijayawada: Top seed Manikandan of Tamil Nadu and second-seeded K.V.N. Murthy of Telangana State will clash in the Veterans 45+ singles final of the All India seniors tennis ranking tournament here. In Saturday’s semifials, both resistered easy wins over their respective opponenets. Manikandan outplayed G. Prabhanjan Reddy of AP 6-1, 6-0 while Murthy defeated fifth-seeded Babu Raja of AP 6-1, 6-2.
In the Veterans 55+ singles semifinals, sixth seed Chinni Sudhakar of Andhra Pradesh upset his statemate and top-seeded 1-Srinivas Reddy with a spirited 7-6(4), 6-3 win while third seed K. Mehar Prakash of Andhra Pradesh registered a hard-fought 7-5, 1-6, 10-7 victory over second-seeed Meghanathan of Tamil Nadu. In the Veterans 65+ singles semifinals, unseeded K. Radha Krishnamurthy of AP defeated statemate Sudhakar Reddy 6-2, 6-2 while fourth seed S. Parekh of Maharashtra outplayed P. Padmalu of AP 6-0, 6-1.
Other results (Doubles semifinals):
Veterans 45+: 1-Manikandan (TN)/K.V.N. Murthy (TS) bt Viswa-nath Ramu (Kar)/Shafi Ullah (TS) 6-3, 4-6, 10-8; Baburaja (AP) Munikrishna Reddy (AP) bt L. Satyagopal (AP)/Hemanth(AP) 6-2, 6-2.
Veterans 55+: 1-K. Mehar Prakash (AP)/Srinivas Reddy (AP) bt 4-Paul Manohar (AP)/Joji Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-2; Ravi Shankar (AP)/Krishnam Raju (AP) bt 2-G. Surendra (AP)/Meghanathan (TN) 6-0, 6-0.
Veterans 65+: CBS Varaprasad (AP)/Madan Mohan Singh(TS) bt Sudhakar Reddy (TS)/A.R. Rao(AP) 6-2, 6-3; 2-Padmalu (AP)/Parekh (Mah) bt 4-M. Sai Rambabu (TS)/Muthu Indrajeet(TN) 6-2, 6-0.
Semi-finals:
Veterans 45+ singles:
1-Manikandan (TN) bt G. Prabhanjan Reddy (AP) 6-1, 6-0;
2- K.V.N. Murthy (TS) bt 5-Babu Raja (AP) 6-1, 6-2.
Veterans 55+ singles:
6-Chinni Sudhakar (AP) bt 1-Srinivas Reddy (AP) 7-6(4), 6-3;
3-K. Mehar Prakash (AP) bt 2-Meghanathan (TN) 7-5, 1-6, 10-7.
Veterans 65+ singles:
K. Radha Krishnamurthy (AP) bt Sudhakar Reddy (AP) 6-2, 6-2;
4-S. Parekh (Mah) bt P. Padmalu (AP) 6-0, 6-1.
