Somdev provides India with gold in doubles with Sanam

Mon, Nov 22 10 08:38 PM

S S Ramaswamy Guangzhou, Nov 22 (PTI) Somdev Devvarman played tirelessly to provide India with a gold in the men''s doubles with Sanam Singh by stepping on the tennis court barely an hour and a half after cruising into the singles final with hard-fought three-set win in the Asian Games, here today. Somdev and Sanam secured India''s third successive men''s doubles crown with an energy-sapping 6-3 6-7 (4) 10-8 victory in the final against crowd favourites and second seeds Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe of China on the centre court at the Aoti Tennis Centre. Earlier, Somdev - seeded second - had battled his way past Japan''s fourth seed, the hard-hitting Tatsmo Ito 6-2 0-6, 6-3 in the men''s semifinal to line up a meeting with top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in tomorrow''s title-clash. To add to the success from the tennis courts, Sania Mirza, who had earlier won the bronze medal in women''s singles, coupled with Vishnu Vardhan to clinch the mixed doubles silver. Showing a lot of spunk and fighting spirit India''s No 1 player Somdev came back from the brink to subdue Japanese rival Tatsuma Ito to reach the men''s singles final in the Asian Games tennis competition and rewrote history. Somdev''s entry into the men''s singles final has ensured the country its first-ever medal in this category in Asian Games. Top woman player Sania Mirza had won a silver in 2006 in Doha in women''s singles but no Indian male had ever reached the gold medal round in singles before Somdev. In the baseline slugfest, that lasted almost two hours, second seed Somdev pocketed the opening set in his semifinal clash with Ito, ranked 195 on the ATP circuit, with a measure of comfort 6-2 and then was blown off court by fourth seed Ito in the second to drop it 0-6. Things were looking difficult for the Indian world no. 106 when he and his rival traded service breaks in the first four games before Somdev staged an excellent rally under severe pressure by saving two break points in the fifth game. That was the turning point as the Tripura-born Somdev regained poise and then broke his rival for the third time, this time decisively, before taking the set 6-3 and reaching the final. .

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