Nineteen-year-old Karan Rastogi was rewarded for his hard work as he was crowned the ITF Men's Satellite Masters champion on Friday.
In the final played at the DLTA courts in New Delhi, Rastogi registered a straight set 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over local favourite Vishal Uppal.
With this win, Rastogi won the ITF Masters circuit amassing 68 points to edge out Kazakhstan's Alexey Kedriouk who ended up with 67 points. This means Rastogi will gain 35 ATP points apart from eight bonus points.
In the final, the first set was keenly-contested as both the players, sticking to their constrasting styles, held to their serves. Rastogi though won the tie-breaker without much trouble.
After losing the first set, Uppal, who heavily relied on his serves, dug his own grave by committing a series of double faults and unforced errors besides selecting wrong shots.
In the third game of the second set, the Delhi player committed two consecutive double faults and handed over a break point to Rastogi, who grabbed the opportunity.
Uppal continued to offer some easy points which helped Rastogi achieve another break point in the ninth game and seal the match in his favour.
The Mumbai player got a cheque of US $ 800 for winning the title.
Talking to mediamen after the match, he described it as one of his best efforts while admitting that he needed to work on some areas to improve his game.
"This win is up there. After a disppointing show earlier, I sat down with my coach Sanjay Poddar and sorted out some areas of my game which helped a lot," he said, adding "I know I have to work on some other areas of my game and play well at bigger tournaments."
Rastogi will move to US to train there for a month before coming back to Delhi to take part in the ABN-Amro meet.
