Bengaluru Open: India’s Anirudh-Prashanth storm into doubles final

Bengaluru: Indian pair of Anirudh Chandrasekhar and N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth extended their excellent form at the Bengaluru Open 2023 to enter the doubles final after beating the fourth-seeded Arjun Kadhe and Max Neuchrist 7-6(1), 4-6, 10-2 at the KSLTA Stadium on Friday.

Anirudh and Prashanth are the only Indians remaining in the tournament as the country�s campaign ended in the singles with the exit of Sumit Nagal on Thursday. The duo registered a hard-fought win in an exciting three-setter semi-final against the Indo-Austrian pair and will play the final on Saturday.

In the singles quarterfinals, Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia toppled No. 1 seed Chun-Hsin Tseng of Taipei. Medjedovic employed his power-packed serve and ground shots to telling effect to carve a 6-1, 6-2 win over his fancied opponent. The extent of Medjedovic’s dominance was evident from the fact that he managed to effect five breaks in the match.

Medjedovic will face Max Purcell in the semi-finals on Saturday. Purcell, the defending doubles champion in Wimbledon, outperformed Luca Nardi of Italy 6-2, 6-0.

Earlier, second-seeded James Duckworth of Australia, who was once ranked No. 46 in the world, also entered the Last-4 with a clinical 6-4, 6-1 win over Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria.

Another Australian James McCabe, who came through qualifiers, also booked his berth in the semifinals, beating Harold Mayot France 6-3, 7-6 (4).