India’s Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan won their second ATP World Tour title together after pipping the top-seeded Australian pair of Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith in the final of the Tata Open Maharashtra, here on Sunday.
The Indians erased the first-set deficit to win 6-7(10), 6-3, 10-6 in one hour and 44 minutes.
For Bopanna, it was his 21st ATP doubles title while for Ramkumar it was second trophy at this level and it will push him inside doubles top-100 for the first time in his career.
They split $16,370 as prize money and earned 250 ranking points each.
Big serves marked the beginning of the contest with only Ramkumar and Luke losing a point each in the first four games.
Bopanna’s volley error on a return from Luke made it 30-all in the fifth game but Ramkumar pulled off an ace and followed that up with another huge serve to hold for a 3-2 lead.
Eventually a tie-break was required for deciding the first set. Both the teams had a number of set points as the Indians squandered two chances and the Australians three before converting their fourth.
In the second set, the Indian duo broke Luke’s serve in the third game when the Australian made a volley error on deuce point.
Bopanna saved a break chance on his serve in the next game to keep their nose ahead. Patrick-Smith was serving to stay in the set in the ninth game and was broken to allow the Indian team force a Super Tie-Breaker (STB).
At 30-all, an engrossing rally ensued between the two pairs. Luke blinked to give Indian first set point which they converted when Bopanna dispatched a volley winner with ease.
Bopanna and Ramkumar dominated the STB to secure the title.
The results:
Doubles final: Rohan Bopanna & Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Luke Saville & John-Patrick Smith (Aus) 6-7(10), 6-3, 10-6.
