Second seeds Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan won the men's doubles semifinal at the Asian Games 2023. They overcame Sononwoo Kwon and Seonchan Hong of Korea to earn the right to compete for the gold.
Shortly
- Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni blasted into the men's doubles championship.
- In men's doubles at the Asian Games, India has won 5 gold medals.
- At the Asian Games in Hangzhou, India's singles competitors came up empty-handed.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni of India, the second seeds who advanced to the men's doubles tennis final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Thursday, September 28, will strive to increase their nation's gold medal total. Sononwoo Kwon and Seonchan Hong, the unseeded Korean team, were defeated by Ramkumar and Myneni in a thrilling semifinal matchup 6-1, 6-7, 10-0.
The seventh Indian team to make it to the Asian Games men's doubles final is Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan. At the continental multi-sport competition, India has taken home up to 5 gold medals in the category. Notably, Myneni will definitely win a medal at the third Asian Games. At the 2014 Asian Games, he shared a silver medal in men's doubles with Sanam Singh and a gold medal in mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.
In the men's doubles final on Friday, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni will compete for gold against Thailand's Isaro Pruchya and Jones Maximus Parapol.
India's important run to the championship final came despite top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri losing in the second round after receiving byes.
In just 25 minutes, Ramkumar and Saketh defeated SoonWoo and Seong 6-1 in the opening set of their semifinal match. It appeared like the Indians would easily advance to the final as they broke the Korean pair as early as the fourth game of the second set. However, the Korean team rediscovered their rhythm and immediately broke the Indian duo back, forcing a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, the lower-ranked Korean team battled Ramkumar and Myneni head-to-head before prevailing and tying the score at 1-1 going into the semifinal.
Ramkumar and Saketh, on the other hand, came together and dominated the 10-point shootout, winning it 10-0 and securing a spot in the championship game.
Ankita Raina and Rohan Bopanna of India competed in the mixed doubles quarterfinal on Thursday in Hangzhou.
India's singles campaign came to an end on Wednesday as Sumit Nagal and Ankita Raina lost their quarterfinal matches in Hangzhou.