NEW DELHI: The mixed doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale on Thursday assured itself of a bronze medal, beating Kazakhstan’s Zhibek Kulambayeva and Grigoriy Lomakin 7-5, 6-3 at the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou.
With the win, the second-seeded Bopanna-Bhosale pair moved to the mixed-doubles semis.
The first set seemed going into a tie-break as Kulambayeva was serving at 40-0 in the 12th game but the Kazakh lost her serve from that strong position.
After that, there was hardly any fight from Kulambayeva and Lomakin in the second set.
The win means, Bopanna, who is playing his last Asian Games at 43, will not go without a medal.
Bopanna was earlier ousted from the men’s doubles with partner Yuki Bhambri.
The second-seeded team of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni also reached the men’s doubles final.
Ramkumar and Myneni earlier in the day, 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.
(With inputs from PTI)
With the win, the second-seeded Bopanna-Bhosale pair moved to the mixed-doubles semis.
The first set seemed going into a tie-break as Kulambayeva was serving at 40-0 in the 12th game but the Kazakh lost her serve from that strong position.
After that, there was hardly any fight from Kulambayeva and Lomakin in the second set.
The win means, Bopanna, who is playing his last Asian Games at 43, will not go without a medal.
Bopanna was earlier ousted from the men’s doubles with partner Yuki Bhambri.
The second-seeded team of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni also reached the men’s doubles final.
Ramkumar and Myneni earlier in the day, 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.
(With inputs from PTI)
