Pune’s Akash Wagh earned a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 6-3 win over experienced Amod Wakalkar in a marathon 130 minutes battle, in the All India Ranking men’s tennis tournament at Fergusson College courts here on Monday. Meanwhile,

Delhi’s Vidhav Vyas stunned seventh seed Harshvardhan Thirani of West Bengal 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5) to enter second round. Wagh, was aggressive right from the start, but unforced errors at crucial times forced the first set into tie-breaker.

Though, he managed to take 1-0 lead winning the tie-breaker 7-5, Wakalkar equalised the score in the second set as the score read 7-5. In the decider, Wagh changed his strategy and made Wakalkar to run all over the court. This paid off as Wagh won the third and last set convincingly.

“Amod is much familiar with these courts and his fitness level is also good, so I was prepared for a tough match,” said Wagh. “Later I realised that he is tiring, so I made him run more and that worked,” he added. In another interesting match, Pune’s Rakshay Thakkar edged out West Bengal’s Shivraj Singh 6-4 5-7 7-6 (8-6) in a match, which lasted for more than 180 minutes. (Ashish Phadnis/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication)