Mysore: Second seed Vishnu Vardhan defeated N. Sriram Balaji 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 in the finals to win the Mysore ITF Open championship being played at the Mysore Tennis Club court.

Vardhan, who fired as many as ten aces, backed his powerful serve with strong and consistent returns to prevail over his 22-year-old rival in 103 minutes.

Balaji, who also served well with half a dozen aces, was unable to break his rival in the entire match which indeed offset his valiant efforts. Balaji's own serve came under pressure on several occasions in the first set, he was dragged to deuce in the first, seventh and eleventh games.

With both holding their respective serves in the first set till 6-all, the set spilled into a tie-breaker in which Balaji was just a set point away, serving at 6-3 before Vardhan recovered to level at 6-all and finally win at 9-7 with Balaji swiping wide over the base line.

The second set too proved an absorbing affair marked by some keen rallies before Balaji wilted in the eighth game with series of mishits and dropped the serve slamming a forehand return out. Vishnu Vardhan, who grabbed a 5-3 lead with that break, served out the match in style and emerged as a worthy winner.

An elated Vishnu Vardhan said: "I am happy to win here and Balaji is a much improved player and has done well in the ITF circuit in India and he is always a tough rival. I think he was unlucky in the first set where he had three set points in the tie break and I had to rely on my experience to get through.

"In the second set, however, it was much easier as he seemed to be tiring out after having played a doubles final and three setter semi finals yesterday," Vardhan said.

Vardhan will also play in the Bangalore Open and later will take a break for a couple of weeks before playing in a few more tournaments abroad. (IANS)