Saketh Myneni in line for two gold medals

Saketh Myneni entered two gold medal matches in the 17th Asian Games at the Yeorumul Courts here on Sunday.

On a day when Indian tennis confirmed three bronze medals, the 26-year-old Saketh with a modest doubles rank of 183, played a key role in progressing in the men’s doubles with Sanam Singh and the mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.

“I will be happy tomorrow if we win two gold medals,” was how he reacted.

Saketh and Sanam beat the top-seeded Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.

It could have been an all-Indian final in men’s doubles, but Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan missed four matchpoints and lost to the charged up Koreans, Hyeon Chung and Yongkyu Lim, who were supported by a near capacity crowd on the centre court.

And when the Indian pair of Sania and Saketh took on the Chinese in the mixed doubles semifinals, the crowd had already melted away to celebrate the Korean victory. Sania and Saketh tamed Ze Zhang and Zheng Jie 6-1, 6-3.

It got a bit tricky when the match was moved to the indoor court owing to rain after Saketh had dropped serve in the first game of the second set.

“It was my mistake that Saketh's serve got broken. I missed the ball on the deuce point. It could have got tricky when we moved indoors but we settled down quickly,” said Sania quite happy to make her third successive mixed doubles finals in the Asian Games.

She had won the gold with Leander Paes in 2006, the silver with Vishnu Vardhan in Guangzhou. In fact, she had won her first Asian Games medal as a 15-year-old with Leander in 2002 in Busan.

The Indian pair bounced back from being down 1-3 in the second set to win the next five games, dropping only seven points in all to the Chinese.

In the final, the second-seeded Sania and Saketh will play the top-seeded Hsien Yin Peng and Hao Ching Chan of Chinese Taipei.

In the men’s semifinals Yuki Bhambri had a brilliant start against the young sensation Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, as he cruised through the first set. But, Nishioka regrouped well to outplay Yuki over the next two sets, eventually winning the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

In women’s doubles, the pair of Sania and Prarthana Thombare put up a strong fight against Chin Wei Chan and Su Wei Hsieh. The Indian pair was up 5-3 and 6-5 in the first set, before losing in the tie-break. In the second, Prarthana played a lot freely as the Indian pair raced away with the set 6-2.

However, the Taipei girls’ experience proved too good in the super tie-break.

The results (semifinals): Men: Yoshihito Nishioka (Jpn) bt Yuki Bhambri (Ind) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles: Sanam Singh and Saketh Myneni (Ind) bt Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) 4-6, 6-3, 10-6; Hyeon Chung and Youngkyu Lim (Kor) bt Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan (Ind) 6-7(8), 7-6(6), 11-9.

Doubles: Chin Wei Chan and Su Wei Hsieh (Tpe) bt Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare 7-6(1), 2-6, 10-4.

Mixed doubles: Saketh Myneni and Sania Mirza bt Ze Zhang and Zheng Jie 6-1, 6-3.