Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan have booked their spot in the men’s doubles final, ensuring themselves of either a gold or a silver at these Asian Games. Ankita Raina, however, lost her women’s singles semi-final and will now finish with a bronze in Indonesia.
Bopanna and Sharan are the top seeds of the men’s doubles event but made a slow start to their semi-final match, losing the first game 4-6 to Japan’s Kaito Uesugi and Sho Shimabukuro.
The Japanese lacked the power and big serve of the Indians, but made up with accurate placements and some good work at the net.
The second set went with the serve till the Indians earned their first service break in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. Serving for the set, Divij conceded a 0-40 deficit before fighting back to 40-40 and eventually holding serve at 6-3 to level the match.
The match went into a super tie break and both teams remained neck and neck at 6-6 and then also 8-8 before the Indians picked up a match point at 9-8. It was on Rohan’s serve and the Indian Grand Slam champion did not let go of this chance, closing the match 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
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Bronze for Ankita
In the women’s singles draw, India’s world number 189 Ankita Raina settled for a bronze medal after losing to China's Zhang Shuai.
Despite not being at full fitness after playing as many as three matches everyday, Ankita gave a spirited fight against an opponent who is placed more than 150 places above her in the WTA rankings.
Raina lost the first set but fought back and almost won the second set before going down 4-6, 6-7 in a battle that lasted for two hours and 11 minutes.
The first set was hard fought with Ankita leading 4-3 at one stage before the Chinese player won three consecutive games to win the set. Zhang broke Ankita's serve in the third game of the second set and held serve to take a 3-1 lead. But the Indian hit back with a service break of her own to claw back to level terms at 3-3. She then held serve to take a 4-3 lead.
With the second set tied at 6-6 the issue went into the tie-breaker. Ankita was trailing in the tie-breaker but made a superb comeback to equalise at 6-6 but she then hit a return too long and another into the net, handing the match to Zhang.
This is India’s third medal ever in the women’s singles event of the Asian Games with only Sania Mirza winning the silver in the 2006 edition in Doha, followed by a bronze by her again in 2010, Guangzhou.
In tennis, both losing semi-finalists win the bronze medal.
(With inputs from IANS)
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