India's top-ranked player Rohan Bopanna overwhelmed Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad to enter the final of the $10,000 ITF Futures men's tournament at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association courts on Friday.
In a classic semi-final encounter that lasted two hours and 30 minutes, the fifth seeded Bopanna quelled a brilliant fightback from Mankad to win 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).
In the final, Bopanna will meet Russian second seed Dmitri Vlasov, who rallied from a set deficit to defeat compatriot Vadim Davletshin 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Vishal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse, the bronze medal winning pair at last year's Asian Games, won the doubles title, beating Mankad and Ajay Ramaswami in the final.
In what was billed as the match of the tournament, the Mankad-Bopanna contest had all the trappings of a perfect Bollywood blockbuster. While one was a seasoned Davis Cup player, the other was a fast emerging talent, ready to take on the mantle of leading Indian tennis player.
Their head to head record was 1-1 when they went into the match, and with the team for the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Japan to be chosen in the coming days, both had a point to prove.
When Bopanna broke Mankad in the very first game and then led 4-2 in the second set, it seemed as if the contest would end a damp squib. But then Mankad rediscovered his true form and hit a purple patch as he left Bopanna gasping for breath against his stunning ground strokes.
Bopanna, 173 places above his opponent at 387 on the ATP rankings, then had to dig deep and bring all his experience into play to keep the rampaging Mankad at bay. True to his name as the highest ranked Indian, Bopanna played flawless tennis in the tie-breaker of the deciding set to emerge victorious.
Mankad was a bit tight in the first set and rarely hit a winner but came back strongly into the match when Bopanna left the back door open in the second set.
Similarly, Bopanna had the confidence to try and perfect his second serve in a crucial match. But that proved costly when a double-fault, combined with an unforced error and a superb cross-court return by Mankad, saw him drop serve in the eighth game of the second set.
"I was trying to get some kick on the second serves but what was happening was instead of moving in front after serving I was going back and was consequently being pushed behind the baseline," Bopanna said.
Ironically, that was the only double-fault by Bopanna in the second set while there were six and five of them in the first and third sets respectively.
Mankad did not let go the momentum and broke his rival once more in the 10th game to take the set and push the match into the decider. His blazing form in the latter part of the match was in contrast to the first set, when he committed elementary errors like wrong judgment.
But once he regained his flow, his game went several notches up. He avoided his backhand slices which he had tried to play in the early part of the game and stuck to his original self.
"I wanted to improve on my slices to add variety but that's not my game. And in this crucial match I did not want to experiment," Mankad said.
That in turn forced Bopanna to raise his game and the decider was top class stuff lasting a whole hour and two minutes. In the end, it did not matter who won, for the quality of tennis on show was ample proof of the talent available in the country.