India get bronze in men's tennis team event

Guangzhou: India had to be content with the bronze medal as they went down 1-2 against Chinese Taipei in a marathon men's team tennis championship semi final rubber in Asian Games tennis at the Aoti courts here today with top singles player Somdev Dev Varman winning his tie comfortably.

Starting the battle in the morning, fourth seeds India stretched their opponents right till 5.45 pm in the evening when the tie ended in the top seed Taipei's favour.

Sanam Singh gave a tough fight to Yang Tsung Hua but failed to convert his chances and went down after winning the opening set. He lost 7-6 (3), 2-6 6-7 in two hours and 44 minutes.

Somdev, ranked 105th in the world, brought India back into the rubber when he demolished Taipei rival Ti Chen 6-2 7-6 (4) in 1 hour and 39 minutes by out-hitting his rival from the base.

But the efforts seemed to have drained the Indian duo who were blown away in the doubles tie which they lost 6-4 7-6 (1) to settle for the bronze.

Sanam Singh fought back from 0-3 down, by breaking his rival in the seventh game of the opening set, to force a tie break that he won with a measure of ease.

However, he could not sustain the momentum and dropped his serve twice to concede the second set in only 33 minutes before waging a bitter battle in the decider.

Sanam was 5-6 and 30-0 up but his rival came out with aces at the right moments to claw his way back. In the tie break the Indian was down 1-3 but came back to level terms with a glorious back-hand cross-court winner on the run.

Any hopes raised by his shot evaporated soon as he was not able to counter his rival's serve and was down match point at 4-6. He saved one when Yang hit long but following his own second serve hit a forehand just wide to lose the point as well as the match.

Somdev was in top gear from the beginning and swept his way to the first set without much difficulty, breaking his rival in the third and fifth games to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

Chen broke the Indian in the fourth game of the second set for a 3-1 lead before Somdev restored parity by breaking back in the seventh. Somdev was the better player in the tie-break.

In the deciding doubles rubber, Somdev and Sanam went down to Yang Tsung Hua and Yi Chu-Huan, who had a fresh pair of legs, by losing the opening set easily in 38 minutes and then fighting back in the second before losing it in tie break after a 61-minute struggle.

The two pairs traded breaks early in the first set before the Taipei duo made the decisive break in the tenth.

The Indians led 3-1 and 5-3 in the second set before their rivals caught up at 5-all and forced the tie break that the Indians lost tamely. The second set lasted 61 minutes.

Taipei would fight it out with Uzbekistan who defeated Japan 2-1 in the other semi final while losing semi finalists India and Japan secured the bronze as there's no play-off scheduled for the bronze medal.