Asian Games tennis: India lose to Chinese Taipei, get bronze

GUNAGZHOU - India had to settle for a bronze in the men’s tennis event after losing 1-2 to top seeds Chinese Taipei in the semifinals here Monday.

India’s Somdev Devvarman drew the tie with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over Ti Chen after Sanam Singh went down fighting 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-7 (5) to Tsung Hua Yang in the first rubber.

Somdev and Sanam then combined for the deciding doubles but Yang and Chu-Huan Yi scraped through 4-6, 6-7(1).

India No.1 and Commonwealth gold medallist Somdev kept the team afloat after his clash of one hour and 39 minutes against Chen, who raised his game by several notches in the second set. Chen had replaced Taipei’s top ranked player Lu Yen-hsun, who pulled out due to a waist injury.

After losing the first set in 37 minutes, Chen opened up a 4-1 lead in the second before the 106th-ranked Indian broke back in the ninth game to stretch the set to a tie-breaker, where he prevailed.

In the keenly fought doubles match, the Indians after exchanging early breaks were a bit unlucky when in the ninth game a cross-court return from Sanam was called out and brought up two set points for Chen-Yang, who wasted no time in converting these.

In the second set, the Indians pulled off an early break and were serving for the set but Sanam dropped his serve. The Indians also failed to take the advantage of the three break points in the next game and the set spilled into a tie-breaker, which turned out to be a one-sided affair.