Yevgeny Donskoy of Russia won his second consecutive title in a matter of weeks by beating Ukraine’s Eric Vanshelboim 6-2, 7-6 in the final of Sunday’s $25,000 ITF Men’s Open. The 33-year-old won a stage in Delhi last week, beating Japan’s Yusuke Takahashi in the final. Once at No, he did not drop a set except for the first leg of the season against Dig Vijay Pratap Singh of India. Tennis matches between players from both countries were tense due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But at the end of the 100-minute game, the players shook hands, chatted briefly and hugged. Both wanted to play aggressively. Third-seeded Donskoy defeated Vanshelboim in Games 1 and 3 to take a 4-0 lead. Despite seventh-seeded Vanshelboim stopping a slide to keep his two holds, Donskoy held and finished the set with 42 minutes. In the second set, 21-year-old Vanshelboim continued to struggle against

But, the Ukrainian tussled back. Vanshelboim broke in game seven, but Donskoy broke again in the next game. It was 5-5 but the dominant Donskoy defeated Vanshelboim one last time to end the set 7-5. Vanshelboim scored 16 ATP points. “I knew Eric had his own way of shooting around the net, but I decided to attack early and hit the ball hard to the end,” Donskoy said. “If I hadn’t attacked I would have fallen into his trap as Vanshelboim slowed down and then deftly turned to his advantage. Donskoy, who will miss stops in Mysore and Chennai, has won back-to-back tournaments in India. “It’s exciting because it’s the first time in my life.” he said. “I still feel fit and good and I want to get back in the top 100.”

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