Prithvi Sekhar repeated his performance of winning the Australian Open deaf tennis championship as he beat Oliver Grave of France 6-3, 6-1 in the final at the Melbourne Park on Sunday.
“I am thrilled to win this event once again. The competition was a lot tougher this time,” said Prithvi from Melbourne.
“Both my quarterfinals and semifinals were hard matches, and lasted three sets. I missed two match points at 5-3 in the third set in the semifinals against Marino Kegl. He served well to survive those match points. I saved one match point in the tie-break and played calm after that, taking my time, to win that. I was confident and well prepared for the final. Very happy with the way I played the final against another good player,” recalled Prithvi.
He gave credit to Anirudh Chandrasekar for the training he had with him for three days before the championship that particularly helped him get used to tackling a left-hander.
Prithvi also got to watch a few matches at the Rod Laver arena and other show courts.
“Australian Open has a terrific atmosphere. It was fantastic to be there once again and win the title. I had a lot of people cheering for me and I thank my family and friends for the great support,” said Prithvi, who will be returning home in Chennai on Tuesday night.
Prithvi’s quarterfinal opponent was his doubles partner Marco Carretta of Italy, and it was a long drawn affair, spanning two hours and 20 minutes.
“We won one match in super tie-break in doubles and lost two other matches in super tie-break. Doubles was round-robin format and we finished third,” recalled Prithvi.
The results (final):
Prithvi Sekhar bt Oliver Grave (Fra) 6-3, 6-1; Semifinals: Prithvi bt Marino Kegl (Slo) 2-6, 6-3, 7 6(6); Quarterfinals: Prithvi bt Marco Carretta (Ita) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.