Asian Games: Bopanna-Bhosale reach mixed doubles final, assured of medal

Hangzhou [China]: The Indian ace 43 year old Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale secure their spot in the mixed doubles final event and also assured a medal with a 6-1, 3-6, [10-4] victory over Chinese Taipei in the semifinal at the ongoing 19th Asian Games on Friday.

The dynamic pair of Bopanna and Bhosale won the first set 6-1 against Chinese Taipei’s Yu-hsiou Hsu and Hao-ching Chang.

However, in the second set India pair lost control and faced some stiff competition as the Taipei duo took the second set to send the semifinal contest into a winner-takes-all super-tiebreaker, which meant that the first pair to score 10 points will advance to the summit clash match.

The Indian pair prevailed in the tie breaker winning 10-4 to storm into the final and assuring themselves of a medal. The veteran Rohan Bopanna making up for his disappointing first-round exit in the men’s doubles event.

The 43-year-old Bopanna and Bhosale, who advanced into the gold medal match, will take on another Taipei pair in the form of Tsung-hao Huang and En-shuo Liang in the final on Saturday.

In the quarterfinals, the Indian duo had defeated Grigoriy Lomakin and Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday.

Earlier in the men’s doubles gold medal match, the Indian pair of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan won silver after suffering a 4-6 4-6 defeat against the Chinese Taipei duo of Yu-hsiou Hsu and Jason Jung.