New Delhi. India’s Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and his partner Vijay Sundar Prashanth won their first ATP title as a men’s doubles pair by becoming champions of the Hangzhou Open on Tuesday, while Yuki Bhambri and his French partner Albano Olivetti finished runners-up at the Chengdu Open on Tuesday.
The unseeded Indian pair of Jeevan and Vijay defeated the unseeded German pair of Konstantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-7 in a match that lasted one hour and 49 minutes. This is the second ATP Tour level title for 35-year-old Jeevan. He won the Chennai Open with Rohan Bopanna in 2017. This is the first ATP Tour title for Vijay.
After losing the first set 4-6, the Indian pair made a brilliant comeback and won the second set 7-6 to take the match to a tie-break. The Indian pair was ahead 10-7 in the tie-break.
The pair of Jeevan and Vijay were excellent in capitalising on their serves. Earlier, the pair of Bhambri and Olivetti missed out on their third title after losing 4-6, 6-4, 4-10 to top seeded French pair of Sadio Doumbia and Fabian Reboul in a thrilling final of the Chengdu Open. After losing the first set in a match that lasted for about one and a half hours, Bhambri and Olivetti won the second set and took the match to a tie-break.
The Indian and French pair hit six aces compared to their opponents’ two aces but committing six double faults proved costly for them. For the French pair, this was their first win over Bhambri-Olivetti. The pair of Bhambri and Olivetti had won the titles of BMW Open in Munich in April this year and Swiss Open in Gstaad in May.
India’s top singles player Sumit Nagal also suffered a defeat in the qualifying stage of the Beijing Open. Nagal, who withdrew from the Davis Cup match due to injury, is returning to the court after the US Open. Nagal, ranked 83rd in the world rankings, was defeated by 63rd ranked player Pavel Kotov of Russia 6-2, 7-6 in a match that lasted one hour and 52 minutes.