HANGZHOU: The Indian tennis duo Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale bagged the gold medal in the tennis mixed doubles at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.
The Rohan-Rutuja duo struggled in the initial set of the match and lost the first set against Chinese Taipei's En-shuo Liang and Tsung-hao Huang by 6-2. The Indian pair made a stellar comeback and later dominated the game to beat their opponents in straight two sets by 3-6, and 4-10. The final tennis match went on for almost over one hour but India made no mistake to clinch the gold medal.
In the semi-final match of the mixed doubles final event, 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale defeated Chinese Taipei's Yu-hsiou Hsu and Hao-Ching Chang to reach the final. The Indian duo defeated Chinese Taipei by 6-1, 3-6, 10-4 and assured a medal for India at the Asian Games 2023 on Friday.
The Bopanna-Bhosale duo won the first set 6-1 against Chinese Taipei's Yu-hsiou Hsu and Hao-ching Chang. However, in the semi-final match, the Indian pair lost control in the second set but they prevailed in the tiebreaker 10-4 to storm into the final match assuring themselves a medal.
The tennis events started on September 24 and concluded on Saturday with Bopanna-Bhosale winning the gold in the mixed doubles final.
The Indian contingent stands at fourth place in the 19th Asian Games medals table with a total of 34 medals. Which includes nine gold, 13 silver, and 13 bronze medals.