Tennis
Dubai ATP: Yuki Bhambri advances to his first-ever ATP 500 final
Yuki, partnering with Alexei Popyrin, notched a fighting victory in the semi-final against Jamie Murray and John Peers.
Yuki Bhambri is India's top doubles player
India's Yuki Bhambri and his Australian partner Alexei Popyrin continued their good form to reach the final with another thrilling three-set victory at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Friday.
The Indo-Australian pair registered a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6,10-7 win in the semi-finals of this ATP 500 tournament, edging out the British-Australian duo of Jamie Murray and John Peers in 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Maiden final appearance
This will be Yuki's first appearance at the final of an ATP 500 tournament, where he will face the second seeded mixed pairing of Harri Heliovaara (Finland) and Henry Pattern (Great Britain) tomorrow.
Yuki and Popyrin made a strong start to the match and took a 4-1 lead in the opening set, thanks to a perfect (40-0) break in the fourth game, which they closed comfortably by winning another break in the final game 6-2.
The Australian-British pair responded brilliantly in the second and showed a much better first serve, having an 86% win percentage, to force a deciding super tiebreaker.
In the final set, Yuki and Popyrin once again gained an early advantage and took a big lead of 5-1 from the start. But, Murray and Peers bounced back and leveled the scores to 5-5.
In the end, the Indo-Aussie pair marginally edged past their opponents and close the set 10-7 and booked a spot in the final.
