Hangzhou Open 2024 tennis: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan-Vijay Sundar Prashanth win doubles title
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth defeated Germany’s Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens to win their first ATP title as a pair.
Tennis
India’s Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth won the Hangzhou Open 2024 doubles event after a come-from-behind victory against the German pair of Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens in the final on Tuesday.
This was the first ATP Tour title for the Indian pair, who started playing together at the start of the 2024 tennis season.
On Tuesday, Jeevan and Vijay, unseeded at the ATP 250 tournament, defeated fellow unseeded opponents 4-6, 7(7)-6(5), 10-7 in the final at the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Centre in the People’s Republic of China. The Indian pair won the contest in one hour and 49 minutes.
Frantzen and Jebens looked in control in the first set. They got the break in the fifth game and held two service games on love to take a 1-0 lead.
Jeevan and Vijay were unable to break their German opponents in the second game but held all their service games and then clinched the set in the tie-breaker.
With both teams square at 1-1, the match went into the 10-point super-tiebreaker. Frantzen and Jebens led 5-4 at one stage but the Indian pair won six of the last eight points to secure the title at the ATP 250 event.
This was 35-year-old Jeevan’s second career title on the ATP Tour. His last title came at the 2017 Chennai Open with Rohan Bopanna in the doubles. For the 37-year-old Vijay, the win at the Hangzhou Open 2024 was his first ATP title.
All of Jeevan and Vijay’s victories at the Hangzhou Open came in the super tie-breakers.
The Indian tennis players defeated Uruguay’s Ariel Behar and USA’s Robert Galloway, seeded third, in the super tie-breaker after being bageled in the first set. The Indians won the tie 0-6, 6-2, 10-4.
In the quarter-finals, the Indian pair got the better of the second-seeded British pair of Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool with a scoreline of 6(4)-7(7), 7(8)-6(6), 10-8 after losing the first set. In their opener, Jeevan and Vijay beat Australians Blake Bayldon and Thomas Fancutt 7(7)-6(4), 4-6, 10-7.