Tennis
Arjun Kadhe-Rithvik Bollipalli win maiden ATP tour title in Almaty
Arjun and Rithvik came from behind to beat Colombia's Nicolas and Tunisia's Skander 3-6, 7-6(3), 14-12 in an hour and 41 minutes to win the ATP 250 title.
Indian men's doubles pairing of Arjun Kadhe and Rithvik Bollipalli won their maiden ATP tour title in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Sunday.
They delivered a strong performance in the final by stunning Colombia's Nicolas Barrientos and Tunisia's Skander Mansouri, who had defeated N. Sriram Balaji of India and Argentina's Guido Andreozzi 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals.
In the final, Arjun and Rithvik came from behind to beat Nicolas and Skander 3-6, 7-6(3), 14-12 in an hour and 41 minutes to win the ATP 250 title.
After losing the first set, Arjun and Rithvik won the second set. In the third set, they saved five match points to win the tough battle.
The win will help Rithvik, currently ranked 102nd, enter the top 100 in ATP rankings. Arjun, on the other hand, is ranked 92nd.
Earlier, Arjun and Rithvik reached their first-ever ATP Tour-level final with a strong performance in the semifinal against Germany's Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner. The Indians beat Jakob and Mark 7-6(6) 6-3.
Arjun and Rithvik have been in fine form throughout the tournament. They won their previous matches in straight sets.
En route to winning the title they defeated Marco Bortolotti and Patrik Niklas-Salminen in the Round of 16 (6-4, 7-6) and Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul in the quarterfinal (6-4, 6-4).