File image of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni© Twitter
The Indian tennis camp had something to cheer on Thursday with Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni reaching the men’s doubles gold medal round and the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale assuring itself of a medal. The second-seeded team of Ramkumar and Myneni downed the gutsy Korean pair of Seongchan Hong and Soonwoo Kwon 6-1 6-7(8) 10-0 to move to the title clash. Myneni will now gun for his second Asian Games gold, having won a mixed doubles yellow metal with Sania Mirza in the 2014 edition.
It will be a maiden Games medal for Ramkumar.
The Koreans fought back after losing the opening set in a rather sedate manner but Myneni and Ramkumar held their nerves to outplay their rivals in the Super Tie break.
The Indian team will now take on Chinese Taipei, that ousted Thailand, in the gold medal match on Friday.
India had won the men’s doubles title in the last edition in Indonesia with Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan emerging victorious in the final.
The second-seeded Bopanna-Bhosale pair moved to the mixed doubles semifinals with a fluent 7-5 6-3 win over Kazakhstan’s Zhibek Kulambayeva and Grigoriy Lomakin.
The first set seemed going into a tie-break as Kulambayeva was serving at 40-0 in the 12th game but she lost her serve from that strong position.
There was hardly any fight in the second set. Bopanna, who is playing his last Asian Games at 43, will not go without a medal.
He has already been ousted from the men’s doubles with partner Yuki Bhambri. (Asian Games 2023 Medals Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)
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