Bengaluru: Fifth seed Arjun Kadhe of India completed a golden double after he won the singles title, defeating second seed Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the final of the USS 15,000 SKME ITF Open which concluded at the KSLTA Stadium here on Sunday.
The 28-year-old had won the doubles title on Saturday and garnered back-to-back ITF titles after the win in Bhopal last Sunday where, incidentally, Rawat had finished runners-up.
“Winning the first set was very important in these conditions,” said Kadhe who opened up a 3-0 lead with a break in the second game.
While Kadhe adopted an aggressive approach, Rawat played defensive and waited for his rival to make mistakes, which Kadhe didn’t most of the time. The rest of the games went with the serve as Kadhe took the first set at 6-3.
With the players tied at 3-3 in the second set, one loose shot by Kadhe changed the momentum in favour of Rawat who broke his rival’s serve in the sixth and eighth game to come back into the match strongly.
However, the spurt lasted a brief period only as Kadhe upped his game and didn’t give his opponent a semblance of a chance to bounce back into the match after he led 3-0 with a break in the second game of the third set. The best Rawat could manage was to hold serve in the fourth game as Kadhe served with purpose and came up trumps.
“I really enjoy playing in Bengaluru. I am happy to end up as the winner three times during these last two weeks,” said the champion who earned USD 2,160 but, more importantly, 15 ATP points while Rawat was richer by USD 1,272 and collected eight ATP points.
Result: Singles final
5-Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt 2-Sidharth Rawat (IND) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
