The pairing of Vijay Prashanth / Anirudh Chandrasekhar pulled off a strong win over Frances Tiafoe and Michael Mmoh by 6-3 6-4 scoreline in the opening round of the ATP 250 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston.
Post the match, ITD caught up with Coach Vignesh Peranamallur to get his views
On the game plan
The game plan was to be solid because knowing those guys – they are very good from the back and we are playing on clay, so we wanted to be as solid as possible at the net and make sure we are very aggressive from the start and not give them any look.
The first game we started off a little tight maybe, it was a deuce point and then we showed character there to hold it and then from there on we were in complete control of the match and the second set we had our chances.
So the main goal was to just be solid, strong from the start and show a lot of character.
Any key moments?
The first game could have gone the other way but we held on to that, so in the first set we closed out very good and in the second set we had a small chance, we could have gone up but yes we served well and the volleying also was very clinical.
On losing a lot of close matches on the ATP Tour this year and on what it takes to transition
There is nothing specific, we need to show a lot of character. Overall we have been losing those close matches on the ATP Tour. We have played quite a bit of ATP Tourneys now.
Our aim is to make sure we are solid, be strong from the beginning. We are getting those half chances but we are not converting because I feel we are not brave enough in those moments. I want them to be brave. The boys showed that today, so being brave, showing character, good attitude from the beginning and whatever we are doing in the practice courts, trying to replicate the same into the match will give us results.
On playing a lot of ATP Tourneys this year.
We started off playing Australian Open. We were ranked inside top 100 so we were fortunate we were able to get into a lot of ATP’s. That was the plan to play a lot of ATPs and right now we are slightly dropped in the rankings unfortunately because of the results, so the scheduling is to try and play the higher events whenever we can.
Otherwise get back into the challengers, come into the top 100 again as soon as possible and then take it on from there. Yes French Open is close, hopefully we can make it, if not for French Open then Wimbledon is our target for sure.