Yuki enters final

Yuki Bhambri had to sweat, toil as well as keep his nerve to get past Vishnu Vardhan and set up a title clash with Rohan Gajjar in the $ 15,000 ITF Futures tournament at the DLTA courts on Friday.

Bhambri may have been seeded fourth, but everyone has been expecting him to take a shot at the title in this tournament as well as the one next week, after he decided to skip the Wimbledon juniors in a bid to boost his world seniors ranking from the present 650th.

But for the first time, Bhambri faced the threat of elimination in the face of a robust game from Vardhan before prevailing 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4). Vardhan had Bhambri on the edge for most of the first set with his strong serves, but it were his returns in the second that set up the engrossing deciding set between players who had won all their previous matches in straight sets.

Bhambri, whose only drawback was the failure to put away some easy volleys at the net, cut out on unforced errors when it mattered most. But while Bhambri managed to get in his first serves in the tie-breaker of the decider, even managing an ace, Vardhan double-faulted twice to lose the plot. The Delhi boy’s relief was evident in the way he knelt down and then looked up in a gesture of thanksgiving after completing the win.

“I was expecting a tough match and though I felt I was in control in the first two sets, it was not easy playing him when he was managing aces so easily,” said Bhambri, who had beaten Vardhan on way to his two ITF titles here in May.  Bhambri will take on Gajjar in the final. The Mumbai player was impressive in his 6-3 7-5 win over Ashutosh Singh.