Jeevan outclasses Pavic to win ITF singles title

In a one-sided final, national champion Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan defeated unseeded Croatian rival Mate Pavic in straight sets to lift the CCI-ITF men's Futures tennis title in Mumbai.

The 24-year-old from Tamil Nadu, who had come back to tennis after a long lay-off due to multiple injuries in August-September, thrashed a nervous-looking Pavic 6-1, 6-1 in just over an hour to win the top prize of $1950 and 27 ATP points.

The 19-year-old Pavic, ranked 463, won $1350, besides earning 18 points for finishing runner-up.

Jeevan, ranked 400 going into the tournament, reckoned after his thumping victory he will jump to somewhere between 340 and 350 points when the new rankings list is announced.

It was four titles out of four final appearances in Futures for Jeevan, who came into the tournament on a high having won the national men's singles crown in Delhi.

Jeevan, who had won the $10,000 Futures event in Madurai in April after having won two Futures events last year in Kolkata ($10,000) and Pune ($15,000), started with a bang by breaking his rival's serve in the second game of the opening set after having staved off a break point in the opening game.

From there on, he was hardly troubled as he jumped to a handy 4-1 lead, broke his rival again in the sixth and then closed out the set by holding his serve.

Jeevan broke Pavic's serve in the very first game of the second set, held his serve after deuce was called twice to take a 2-0 lead and then upped the tempo to run away with the second set after another break of serve in the 5th game when his rival volleyed over the base line.

"It was his (Croatian's) first final and it was clear he was nervous. I spoke to N Sriram Balaji (another Indian player and third seed) before this match about how he felt in his first final. I could empathise with him (Pavic) as I had also gone through a similar feeling when I lost to Vijay Kannan five years ago," said Jeevan.

"But I took advantage of my opponent's nervousness, quickened the pace of the rallies to make him commit many unforced errors," he added.