The Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale scripted a spectacular come-from-behind win on Saturday in the mixed doubles final to beat Chinese Taipei pair, the ninth-seeded Tsung-hao Huang and En-shuo Liang, 2-6, 6-3, 10-4. With the win, India maintained the stellar streak of at least a gold in each of the six Asian Games editions this century.
With Rutuja feeling the nerves of a maiden final and a medal at stake, India struggled in the opening set after being broken twice before losing 2-6 down in just about half an hour, but bounced back strongly in the second set, securing a late break. And it was Rutuja’s return game at the net that helped India level the score in the match. India were carried the momentum through to the deciding set shoot-out where it was Rutuja who sealed the win with an ace.
This was Bopanna’s second medal at the Asiad after the Indian tennis veteran won the men’s doubles gold at Jakarta 2018 and huge reprieve as well after he shockingly went down in second round of men’s doubles, with partner Yuki Bhambri, earlier this week, a pair that was touted to claim the gold. For Rutuja, meanwhile, it was her maiden medal haul at the continental meet.
This was also India’s second medal in tennis at the Hangzhou Asian Games after the pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni got the silver medal in men’s doubles after losing the final to the Chinese Taipei pair of Jason Jung and Yu-hsiou Hsu. This was also India’s third gold medal haul in mixed doubles at Asian Games after Leander Paes and Sania Mirza won at Doha 2006 while Sania combined with Myneni for the top podium at Incheon 2014.
En route to the final, Bopanna and Bhosale beat Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova-Maksim Shin 6-4, 6-2 in the second round after receiving a bye in the first. The pair, seeded second at the Games, then defeated Ayano Shimizu-Shinji Hazawa in 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 16 before taking down Kazakh pair Zhibek Kulambayeva-Grigoriy Lomakin 7-5, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. In the semis, the Indian pair were stretched to the tie-breaker by Chinese Taipei’s Hao-ching Chan and Yu-hsiou Hsu but held nerves to secure a 6-1, 3-6, 10-4 win.
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