Prarthana Thombare clinched her second career $60,000 doubles title at the women's tennis hard-court event in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday.
The 29-year-old Maharashtra girl, an Asian Games bronze medallist, combined with 22-year-old Russian Anastasia Tikhonova to edge out France’s Estelle Cascino and Latvia’s Diana Marcinkevica 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 in the final.
It is the second title of the year and 26th overall for Prarthana, who bagged bronze with Sania Mirza in 2014 Incheon.
The Sangli girl’s first $60K triumph came in France last year in the company of Japan’s Yuriko Lily Miyasaki.
Banthia-Reddy pairs wins $25K title
Siddhanth Banthia and Sai Karteek Reddy won their second title this season in the $25,000 event in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
Pune lad Banthia and Hyderabad’s Reddy, both aged 23, defeated Estonia’s Daniil Glinka and Karl Kiur Saar 7-5, 6-7 (13), 10-4 to lift the trophy in the hard-court event.
It is the first $25K crown for both the players who had triumphed in their first appearance as a team in the $15K event in Jakarta in June.
It is sixth title overall for Banthia, who is playing his first full season on the ITF pro circuit after completing a Masters in Economics and Business Management from Berkley.
For Reddy, it is the third title of the year, following his success in a $15K event with SD Prajwal Dev in Egypt in February, and fifth overall.
Arjun-Rithvik combo falters in final
Arjun Kadhe and Rithvik Choudhary stumbled at the post as they finished runners-up in the $145,000-euro ATP Challenger event in Porto, Portugal, on Saturday.
Third seeds Arjun and Rithvik, who were combining for the fifth week in a row, went down fighting to Japan’s veteran Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi 7-6 (5), 3-6, 5-10 in the hard-court final.
The Indian duo had also reached the final of a 145K-euro Challenger in Braunschweig, Germany, last month.
