Kolkata: Somdev Devvarman and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan kept India’s title hopes alive in the doubles as they set up a final clash with the Aussie duo of James Duckworth and Luke Saville in the USD 50,000 Kolkata Open, an ATP Challenger event, here on Friday.
Having made a round one exit, the India no. 1 singles player who played the doubles on request of his friend Jeevan gave India something to look forward to when the duo survived a scare before pipping Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia and Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium 7-6(9) 7-6(5) 11-9 in a battle that went to the wire.
The Australian duo of Duckworth and Saville on the other hand breezed past Ti Chen and Enrique Lopez Perez, the second seed 6-2 6-4 in the other semifinal.
In the singles, Duckworth justified his top billing by sailing past Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium to set up a summit clash with Moldova’s Radu Albot as the Aussie kept himself in line for a double.
The 23-year-old top seed had some early hiccups when he committed three double faults to concede the first set but was back in his sublime form to seal a final berth with a 2-6 6-3 6-1 win over the third seed in just one hour and 40 minutes.
In the second set the left-handed Belgian was 2-0 up as Duckworth bounced back to win four straight games to turn the scorecard to 4-2 before making it level.
Dishing out an error-free display, Duckworth was full of confidence in the decider as he comfortably broke Bemelmans thrice and securing a final berth in one hour and and 39 minutes. (PTI)
