Maha Open ATP Challenger: India's Jeevan/Prashanth bag doubles crown

Pune, Feb 22: Top seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth of India registered a 3-6, 6-3, 10-0 win over the second-seeded Australian pair of Blake Bayldon and Matthew Christopher Romios to emerge as the doubles champions at the Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men's Tennis Championship at the Balewadi Sports Complex Tennis Stadium.

It was the first title together for Jeevan and Prashanth, and whilst it was the third title for Prashanth in Pune, the win Saturday for the Indian team fetched them prize money of INR 7 lakh and 100 ATP points, which pushed Jeevan to 94 and Prashanth to 104 in the world rankings, respectively.

In the singles finals to be played on Sunday, the sixth-seeded American Brandon Holt will take on unseeded Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic.

Earlier, in the semifinals on Saturday, the 26-year-old and sixth-seed American Brandon Holt ranked 153 in the world took an hour, and 34 minutes to get past eighth-seeded Alexis Galarneau of Canada winning 7-5, 6-4. Holt led 5-0 in the first set before the wily Canadian Galarneau came back to level scores at 5-5, but could not close out the set. Brandon now leads 3-2 in the head-to-head battle with the Canadian.

The 22-year-old Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic and a regular in the Indian Futures circuit made it to his first Challenger final, getting past crowd favourite Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan winning 6-7(8), 6-0, 3-1 retd. The match that looked going the distance had to be stopped as Khumoyun retired after complaining of breathlessness and fatigue due to the heat.

Results:

Singles (semifinal): [6] Brandon Holt (USA) bt [8] Alexis Galarneau (CAN) 7-5, 6-4; Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) bt Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB) 6-7(8), 6-0, 3-1(Retd)

Doubles (final): [1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt [2] Blake Bayldon (AUS)/Matthew Christopher Romios (AUS) 3-6, 6-3, 10-0.