Sardegna Open: Sriram Balaji- Andre Begemann through to the final

The Indo-German pairing of Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann reached their first doubles final of the year at the Sardegna Open in Cagliari, Italy on Saturday. They upset the second-seeded Austrian pair in the semis.

Balaji-Begemann clinched a very dominating straight-set victory (6-1, 6-4) against the 49th-ranked pairing of Alexander Erler and Lucs Midler at this ATP 175 challenger tournament. This was the first meeting between the two pairings.

The match started with a comfortable first set victory for the Indo-German pair as the Austrians had a very poor serving set and they got broken twice in the short seven-game set which lasted for only 25 minutes. 

Similarly, they struggled to find their rhythm in the second set and gave Balaji-Begemann the upper hand in the match after the first three games. Begemann got the opportunity to end the match on his serve which he converted on the second match point as Erler finds the net on a service return.

The 34-year-old Indian, paired up with Begemann in September 2023 and had a very good start with him as they won three doubles titles later in the year 2023. But, this year they haven't clinched any title as a pairing.

They will now face the Bolivarian pairing of Boris Arias and Federico Zeballos in the final, sighting for their first title of the year on the 5th of May.

Earlier, they knocked out the third-seeded pairing of India's Yuki Bhambri and Portugal's Francisco Cabral in a tight straight set (7-6(5), 7-6 (4)) quarter-final encounter.