Bengaluru Open: Indian pair of Anirudh-Vijay suffer loss in doubles final

Indin tennis pair of Anirudh Chandrasekhar and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth were defeated in the Bengaluru Open 2023 doubles final on Saturday at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) Stadium by Yunseong Chung of South Korea and Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei.

Anirudh Chandrasekhar and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth won the first set but dropped the following two sets before dropping the match 6-3, 6(7)-7(9), and 9-11 in one hour and 47 minutes.

In order to reach the ATP Challenger event final, both of the finalists overcame pairings that had been seeded in the tournament. Yunseong Chung and Yu Hsiou Hsu upset top-seeded Australians Marc Polmans and Max Purcell in their last-four match, while Anirudh Chandrasekhar and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth overcame fourth-seeded Arjun Kadhe and Max Neuchrist in the semifinals.

Max Purcell of Australia beat Serbia's Hamad Medjedovic in the singles semifinals, 6-2, 5-7, 7(7)-6(4), setting himself to win a second straight ATP Challenger title.

Purcell, who is a member of the defending Wimbledon doubles champions, got off to a strong start by breaking in the first game.

Purcell rallied to tie the score at 3-3 after Medjedovic staged a comeback to gain a 3-0 lead. The Serbian broke back to tie the set at 5-5 and go on to win it, denying the Australian tennis player a perfect opportunity to end the match while serving.

As the match headed towards the tiebreak in the third and final set, both players retained their serves.

After taking a 5-4 lead in the tiebreak, Purcell won the match by collecting the next two points to seal the deal.

In the Sunday summit match, Purcell will take against fellow countryman and No. 2 seed James Duckworth. In the other semifinal, Duckworth defeated fellow countryman James McCabe 6-3, 6-3.

( With inputs from ANI )