Mahadevan, Jayalakshmi champs

Sixth seed Manoj Mahadevan overcame mid-match jitters to claim the men's title while Sai Jayalakshmi ran away with the women's crown in the Senior national grasscourt tennis tournament in Kolkata on Saturday.

Mahadevan, the Tamil Nadu ace, ended unseeded Sunil Kumar Sipaeya's all-conquering run, beating him 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to win his first major career title while third ranked Jayalakshmi put up an agressive display to outclass former champion and top seed Radhika Tulpule 6-0, 6-4 in about an hour.

Mahadevan was cruising merrily in the final at the Calcutta South Club lawns till Sipaeya rallied strongly with some exciting returns.

Mahadevan won the first set comfortably and then broke Sipaeya's service in the sixth game of the second to go up 4-2. But the talented Chandigarh boy, who advanced to last 16 in junior category of Wimbledon and the US Open last year, held his service in the seventh game of the second set and went on to demolish his rival in the next game to level the set 4-4.

As Mahadevan struggled with his first serve, Sipaeya raised his game by several notches and broke Mahadevan's service once again in the tenth game to take the second set 6-4 and restore parity.

In the decider, both players held service till 5-5, when Mahadevan broke Sipaeya's service in the 11th game to open up a crucial 6-5 lead. He then served outstandingly to hold and wrap the match, conceding only one point.

As the scoreline indicates, Jayalakshmi was too good for Tulpule in a one-sided final. The finalists later teamed up to win the women's doubles crown. They beat Sheetal Goutham and Liza Pereira 6-2, 6-3 in only 53 minutes.

There was an upset of sorts in the men's doubles final as second seeded Nitin Kirtane and Sourav Panja recovered after losing the opening set to put it across the higher ranked pair of Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 and win their fifth national final together.