BENGALURU: When Arjun Khade and Chinese Taipei’s Chun-hsin Tseng lost in the first round of the doubles event last week, they were disappointed. The pair were keen to make a positive impact in the Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger.
But Tseng, who had earlier promised to partner Khade for back-to-back competitions in the Garden City, decided to skip the doubles event for the second Challenger as he had reached the semifinals then and later clinched the title too.
His last minute withdrawal came as a huge setback for Khade, who had to scramble and find a partner with just a couple of days left for the event.
He first approached Sasikumar Mukund, but it did not work out as he wanted to focus on the singles event.
However, Mukund advised Khade to check with Alexander Erler and his team if the Austrian would be free to partner him. They agreed, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the Pune man.
The problem did not end there as it was the first time that they were playing together in the circuit. In fact, they did not even train for a single session before their first match on Wednesday.
After some impressive displays, they reached the final and came up with a solid game to defeat crowd favourites Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 6-7 (4), 10-7 to be crowned champions on Saturday.
However, in the final, it was evident that the pair had not played much. At times, there was a lack of communication. A hint of uncertainty was also creeping in their game, but they both upped their levels, winning some big points.
“This is the first time we were playing together and it was pretty good to win the title here. We had not practiced before the event also. I have to say that we felt very comfortable at the court and it was about keeping the basics right. He (Erler) is a great player and we both understand the game well,” said Khade, who looked sharp at the net, making some brilliant plays to catch their opponents off-guard.
However, the winning pair do not have any plans of playing together soon.
Vukic vs Kuzmanov in final
Top seed Aleksandar Vukic halted the run of last week’s finalist Borna Gojo of Croatia with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory. In the title clash, he will meet Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov.