Hangzhou: India's Saketh Myneni and Ramanathan Ramkumar settled for the silver medal in men's doubles at the Asian Games 2023 here on Friday.
They lost to the unseeded Chinese Taipei pair of Jason Jung and Yu-hsiou Hsu 6-4, 6-4 in the final played at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Tennis Centre.
In an hour and 12 minutes match, India and Chinese Taipei were on par until the fifth game in the first set. Jason Jung and Yu-hsiou Hsu scripted the crucial first break of the match.
The Chinese Taipei duo held onto their serve against the second-seeded Indian tennis players and took the first set.
In the second set, Jason and Hsu pushed the Indian combo on the backfoot, but they managed to keep the Chinese Taipei players from taking the lead until in the ninth game. The Indian duo conceded the break to their rivals off Saketh's serve.
Ultimately, the Indian duo gave in to the strong service to clinch Chinese Taipei’s first gold medal in Asian Games tennis men’s doubles tournament.
While Ramanathan made it to the Asian Games podium for the first time in Hangzhou, it is Saketh's third medal, which includes a mixed doubles gold at Incheon 2014.
India's Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan had bagged the gold in the same event at the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosle made it to the final of the mixed doubles tournament. The second-seeded Indian pair defeated Hao-ching Chan and Yu-hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 3-6, 10-4.
Bopanna and Rutuja will be up against Tsung-hao Huang and En-shuo Liang, another doubles team from Chinese Taipei, in the gold medal match on Saturday. (UNI)
