Czech Jiri Vesely crowned men's singles champion at Tata Open Maharashtra 

The pair of Christopher Rungkat and Andre Goransson overcame Grand Slam champion Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 to lift the doubles trophy for their maiden ATP Tour title.
Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic won the 2020 Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament. (Photo | PTI)
Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic won the 2020 Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament. (Photo | PTI)

PUNE: Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic produced a dominating show to beat Egor Gerasimov of Belarus and clinch his first ATP Tour singles title in five years at the Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament here on Sunday.

Vesely won the men's singles summit clash 7-6 (7-2), 5-7, 6-3 at Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium. He had won his last ATP Tour title in 2015 in Auckland.

The pair of Christopher Rungkat and Andre Goransson overcame Grand Slam champion Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 to lift the doubles trophy for their maiden ATP Tour title.

The opening set of the singles final saw Vesely facing tough challenge from Gerasimov before winning it 7-2.

However, eighth-seeded Gerasimov, who became the third Belarusian player to enter ATP Tour singles final following victory over James Duckworth in the last-four clash here, made a comeback in the second set to take the summit clash into the third set.

The former world No.35 Vesely scored three back-to-back points to start the decider with some exquisite hard-hitting strokes that left Gerasimov clueless before wrapping up the match.

"I am very happy to come back in India and winning the tile. I thank the supporters. It's been amazing support from the crowd here. I will look to continue the momentum in future tournament," Vesely said after the match.

In the doubles final, the pair of Rungkat-Goransson, making the first appearance at South Asia's only ATP Tour tournament, maintained their dominance that saw them dropping only two sets during their campaign here.

After winning the first set, Rungkat-Goransson had to work hard as the former Australian Open champion Erlich won the second set and also presented strong challenge in the decider along with partner Vasilevski.

However, playing their fifth tournament together, Rungkat-Goransson made a timely comeback into the tie-breaker to complete an impressive win.

"We were happy winning our first title, you could see at the end of the match I could not believe it but it happened. We had very tight first-round match after that we played really well," Goransson said during a post-match press conference.

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