JOIN US Talented Yuki Bhambri played some of his best tennis in his career this week as he annexed double crown winning both singles and doubles titles at the ATP Challenger, here on Saturday.
The Indian Davis Cupper, who is ranked 174 in the singles list beat Alexander Kudryavtsev of Russia 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a thrilling three-setter.
In the deciding set, Yuki was trailing 3-5 against the world No 234 but won four games in a row with double breaks.
Yuki, then partnered Michael Venus of New Zealand and the second seeds comfortably beat a fighting N Sriram Balaji and Blaz Rola of Slovakia 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in straight sets.
In the singles final, Kudryavtsev of Russia continued to have the tag of an underachiever compared to the enormous talent he has when he led 5-3 in the final set only to concede the next four games in a fairly tame manner.
Yuki on the other hand stood up to his opponent’s onslaught and played some remarkably long rallies eliciting errors from the Russian to give him a well deserved title, USD 7200 and 80 ATP Points.
In the first set, Yuki faltered against Alexander’s forceful play. Though Yuki kept up with him till 4-4 all, he was broken in the 10th game rather easily to allow the Russian to win the first set 6-4.
The second set saw an exchange of breaks up to 3-all but again a lacklustre and error prone coupled with Yuki’s consistent aggression resulted in the latter taking the set 6-3.