Pakistan's Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi won his third singles title in a row defeating top seed Harsh Mankad 7-6, 6-4 in a tense final of the $10,000 ITF Futures men's tennis singles title at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Saturday.
Second seeded Qureshi's title win followed his earlier victories in Thailand and Dehradun. The 23-year-old Pakistani had claimed the doubles title yesterday partnering Mankad.
Qureshi said the hat-trick gave him as much happiness as it did when he won four doubles titles on the trot last year, in tandem with various partners.
"It feels good. My parents have come down to watch me play, and two days ago it was Eid. So this has been a very satisfying week for me," the 493-ranked player said.
While Qureshi walked away with $1300 and 16 ATP points, the Indian had to contend with $900 and 12 points. But Mankad was satisfied that he played a tough match and his form this week had been much better than it was last week when he made his exit in the second round.
"Definitely it has been a turn around. I moved around the court much better than I did last week when I was just standing at the baseline and pushing the ball," the Davis Cupper said.
Qureshi began with a double fault, and he went on to make nine of them in all -- as against six aces -- for the match.
"Yes, we both were nervous. It is really difficult to be pumped up when you play against your friend," said Qureshi.
"Harsh is a strong baseliner, so I wanted to get my serves going. There were a few double faults but I was going for full on my second serves too, that was my game plan," he said.
Qureshi forced two break points and converted the second to go 3-1 up in the first set but Mankad produced a solid service return and followed it up with a good back hand pass to even out the advantage in the very next game.
The tie-breaker saw the Pakistani playing at full throttle and a cross court winner gave him a slender 4-3 lead, but another of those double faults levelled the scores 4-4.
Then came a string of unforced errors by Mankad and the set was Qureshi's.
"He suddenly started volleying, I was surprised because that's not his game. He tried to play my game but fortunately I won the points," Qureshi said.
In the second set, it was Mankad's turn to go 3-1 up and the second seed to fight back. Fight back he did, but Qureshi's job was made easier by a poor serve game by the Indian.
"Yeah, that was the turning point," Mankad agreed. "Those few points when I tried a few drop shots did not work, but full credit goes to him for the way he played."
Qureshi broke again in the ninth for 5-4. Serving for the match, he committed two more double faults, but held his nerves to clinch his win in 95 minutes.