Rohan Bopanna and Jeevan Nedunchezhi-yan set up an all-Indian final against Purav Raja and Divij Sharan after edging past fourth seeds Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak in a gripping semifinal at the Chennai Open, here on Saturday.
Bopanna and Jeevan eked out a hard-fought 7-6 (3), 6–4 win over the American-Kiwi combination to set up a historic final as never in the past, two Indian teams have clashed in the final of an ATP World Tour event.
A home team is set to take the trophy after five years as the last time an Indian side triumphed here was in 2011 when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took the title.
While the established pair of Sharan and Raja will gun for their third ATP title together, Bopanna and Jeevan are combining only for second time in their career.
It was a tight match with two pairs breaking each other once and set got stretched to the tie-breaker, in which the Indians prevailed with Bopanna winning two crucial points.
It was Jeevan, who was broken in the third game but the Indians broke match immediately to make it even.
Jeevan hit a forehand winner in the eighth game to reach the deciding point but they could not capitalise and it stayed on level terms.
Bopanna’s booming serves meant that Indians were not under pressure on those games but Jeevan while serving to stay in the set too served solid, closing the game at love.
Sitam served at 3-4 in the tie-breaker, where Monroe failed to put away a volley to hand Indians the advantage. Bopanna then came up with a crushing service return winner to earn three set points. They converted second with Bopanna hitting an ace.
Jeevan hit a well-calculated lob at 30-40 when Sitak served and they had a chance to get the crucial break. Bopanna went for a backhand winner but hit wide. The thought was right but lack of execution denied Indians the chance. The Indians again went up 30-0 on Monroe’s serve in the eighth game with Jeevan finding a forehand winner but their opponents fought through to hold.
Earlier, second seed and world number 14 Roberto Bautista Agut outclassed Benoit Paire in a lop-sided semifinal to set up the singles title clash against the young Daniil Medvedev, who rallied to reach his maiden ATP final.
Agut served extremely well to register an easy 6-3, 6-3 win over Paire, who paid the price for his unending unforced errors in the second semifinal.
Agut will now take on Russia’s 20-year-old Medvedev for his fifth career title. Medvedev came from behind to beat the seasoned Dudi Sela 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the first match.
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