DOUBLING THE JOY: Bopanna-Bhosale win mixed doubles gold

Hangzhou, September 30

Rutuja Bhosale raised her game in nick of time while seasoned Rohan Bopanna stayed solid with his big serves as India came back from a set down to win the tennis mixed doubles gold at the Asian Games here today.

2 The two-medal show is India’s worst at the Asian Games since the turn of the century. In 2002, India had returned with four medals from Busan. In the following editions, India won four (2006, Doha) | five (2010, Guangzhou) | five (2014, Incheon) | three (2018, Indonesia) medals.

The second-seeded Indian team rallied to win the title clash 2-6 6-3 10-4 against Chinese Taipei’s duo of Tsung-Hao Huang and En-Shuo Liang. Bhosale struggled with her serve and returns in the opening set and the Taiwanese targeted her for some easy points, especially Huang who latched onto her feeble returns for easy volley winners. The 27-year-old Bhosale redeemed herself from a tight second-set situation, making some stunning returns.

Bopanna said changing sides for returns was game-changing as he moved to deuce side of the court.

“We had to understand each other, what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are. Today after we lost the first set I said, ‘let’s change sides to return’. We need something to change the match,” said Bopanna, who has most likely played his final Asian Games. “They were playing really well and I think if I was someone playing my first or second Asian Games I wouldn’t have even thought of that.”