Asian Games 2023: Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myeneni into men’s doubles tennis final in Hangzhou

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni will look to add to the country’s Gold medal tally as the 2nd seeds progressed to the men’s doubles tennis final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Thursday, September 28. Ramkumar and Myneni defeated the unseeded Korean pairing of Sononwoo Kwon and Seonchan Hong in a thrilling semi-final encounter 6-1, 6-7, 10-0.

Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan are the 7th Indian pair to reach the men’s doubles final at the Asian Games. India have won as many as 5 Gold medals in the category at the continental multi-sport event. Notably, Myneni is assured of his 3rd Asian Games medal. He won silver medal in men’s doubles with Sanam Singh in 2014 Asian Games and the Gold medal in mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.

Asian Games, Day 5 Updates

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni will battle for Gold when they take on Thailand’s Isaro Pruchya and Jones Maximus Parapol in the men’s doubles final on Friday.

It was a crucial run to the final for India as top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri suffered a shock second-round defeat after getting a bye.

Ramkumar and Saketh took the opening set of their semi-final against SoonWoo and Seong 6-1 in just 25 minutes. They broke the Korean pair as early as the 4th game of the 2nd set and it looked like the Indians would cruise into the final. However, the Koreans found some rhythm and broke the Indian pair back straightaway before forcing a tie-breaker. The lower-ranked Koreans went toe-to-toe with Ramkumar and Myneni in the tie-breaker before edging them out and making it 1-1 in the semi-final.

However, Ramkumar and Saketh got their act together and breezed through the 10-point shootout, winning it 10-0 and booking a place in the final.

Meanwhile, India’s Rohan Bopanna and Ankita Raina were in action in the mixed doubles quarter-final in Hangzhou on Thursday.

India’s singles campaign ended when Sumit Nagal and Ankita Raina lost their quarter-finals matches on Wednesday as the singles players drew a blank in Hangzhou.