Maharashtra Open tennis: Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan win second ATP title
The Indian pair beat top-seeded Australians Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith in three sets to win their second ATP title of the year. Joao Sousa won the singles title.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan came from a set down to win the men’s doubles title at the Maharashtra Open 2022 ATP 250 tennis in Pune’s Balewadi Stadium on Sunday.
The Indian tennis team beat top-seeded Australian pair Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith 6-7, 6-3, 10-6.
This was Ramkumar Ramanathan’s second ATP Tour title after the Adelaide international while it was a 21st ATP Tour trophy for veteran Rohan Bopanna.
Both pairs were clinical in the first set, going deep with their serves and finishing off points at the net, with barely any rallies.
The set eventually went to a tiebreak and the trend continued, with both pairs winning points on serve and unable to create break opportunities.
At 10-10 in the tiebreak, Ramkumar Ramanathan sent a return long to give the Australians an 11-10 lead on serve. Luke Saville duly served it out to claim the first set.
In the second set, Bopanna-Ramanathan broke through in the fourth game after a long rally and then held on to that advantage to lead 5-3. The Indian pair broke Saville-Smith for a second time to take the second set and go to a super tiebreaker.
Big serves helped both teams to make it 4-4 in the super tiebreaker before two winners from Ramkumar Ramanathan and another from a rally made it 7-4 to the Indians.
Bopanna-Ramanathan then played all their rallies from the net to put Saville-Smith under pressure and wrapped up the title after winning a point from yet another big serve from Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s Joao Sousa won the singles title after beating sixth seed Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland 7-6, 4-6, 6-1.
It was a fourth singles title on the ATP Tour for the 32-year-old Joao Sousa and his first since the 2018 Estoril Open.