Gold in Tennis! Rohan Bopanna-Divij Sharan Win Men’s Doubles Final

Asian Games 2018: Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan win a gold medal in the men’s doubles event.

Palembang: Gold medalists Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan poses with the tricolour after the presentation ceremony for Men’s Double event at 18th Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018.

(Photo: PTI)

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan have won India a gold medal in the men’s doubles event at the 18th Asian Games.

Bopanna and Sharan, who don't have much experience of playing together, played a solid match against Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev to bag India’s second gold of the day.

The final scoreline read 6-3, 6-4.

This is India’s fourth men's doubles gold at the Games, the last pair being Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh who won at the 2010 Guangzhou edition.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes remain the most successful Indian men's doubles pair in the Asian Games history, having claimed back-to-back gold medals in the 2002 and 2006 Games.

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First Set

Less than 20 minutes into the match, the Indians were 4-1 ahead, breaking Bublik and Yevseyev at the very first opportunity they got. In no time, they were serving for the set with a 5-3 lead and Bopanna's booming serve wrapped it up in style.

The Kazakhs had their moments but were undone by erratic play -- a brilliant cross-court backhand winner one moment and a powerless return buried in the nets the very next minute. In contrast, Bopanna and Sharan's easy camaraderie shone through in the match and they displayed near-perfect on-court coordination.

Bopanna was particularly formidable from the baseline, displaying a good range of strokes to pull off some tough winners, helped by his brute power.

Second Set

The second set went slightly better for Bublik and Yevseyev but they just could not rein in the unforced errors, including a double fault in the fifth game which could have cost them.

The Kazakhs had the faster legs between the two pairs but the Indians had the experience to negate that. At 3-3, Bopanna and Sharan clinched the all-important break to go up and though they were pushed a bit in the very next game, the top seeds held serve to grab a 5-3 lead.

The Kazakhs held on in the next game but it only delayed the inevitable.

Serving for the match at 40-0, Bopanna didn't really come up with the booming serve but the Kazakhs had been deflated enough and a feeble return went into the nets to give India the first tennis gold of the ongoing event.

(With inputs from PTI)