Canberra: Indian duo Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan completed a stunning tournament debut as a team Sunday at the Adelaide International ATP 250 event on Sunday.
The unseeded pair beat top seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the final to mark a victorious debut on the ATP Tour. This is Ramkumar’s first ATP Tour title while Bopanna won his 20th.
Bopanna and Ramanathan had played just one Davis Cup doubles match together before this week.
In the closely-fought first set of the final, the Indians saved break points to force a tie-breaker. At 6-6, Bopanna found a service return winner on Melo’s serve to earn their second set point and converted it on serve.
The second set was more one-sided with the Indians saving four break points in the match, and converting both the chances they had.
Bopanna and Ramkumar, a new pairing on the tour, have had a good first outing this week with only match going to a decider – the second-round clash against eighth seed American pair of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow which they won 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 10-4 in a super tie-breaker.
Earlier in the semi-final, the Indian duo had beaten fourth seeds Tomislav Brkic and Santiago Gonzalez 6-2, 6-4. In the quarters, they got past Benjamin Bonzi and Hugo Nys 6-1, 6-3.
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