By IANS,
New Delhi : Ashutosh Singh and Harsh Mankad Friday won the doubles title at the ATP Challenger, upsetting top-seeded Indo-American pair of Mustafa Ghouse and Brendan Evans at the DLTA complex here Friday.
The unseeded Indians won in straight sets at 7-5, 6-3, though there was a bitter struggle for the first set. But once they clinched it, after trading breaks before the decisive break in the 12th, the second set became an easy run for Ashutosh and Mankad.
The Indian pair broke their opponents in the sixth game but Evans-Ghouse attacked Mankad’s serve in the next game and earned triple break points. The Indians, however, saved all three and pulled off the game to put the pressure on Evans-Ghouse.
The Indians then served out in the ninth game to clinch their first Challenger doubles title of the year.
In the singles semi-finals, top seed Yen-hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei beat France’s Guillermo Alcaide in straight sets 6-4,6-3.
Lu will be aiming for his second consecutive ATP challenger title – he won the SAIL open here last week – when he meets fourth-seeded Japanese Go Soeda in the finals Saturday.
Soeda overcame the challenge of seventh-seeded Russian Alexandre Kudryavtsev in the semi-finals beating him 7-6(5), 6-3.