Unfancied Rithvik Bollipalli and Arjun Kadhe lifted the doubles title in the Almaty Open ATP tennis tournament, as they survived five match points to score a thrilling 3-6, 7-6(3), [14-12] victory over Nicolas Barrientos and Skander Mansouri in Kazakhstan on Sunday.
It was the maiden doubles title at this level for both the players, and the result would put them in the top-100 of world ranking when the next list comes out on Monday.
The title was worth $54,780 and 250 ATP points. The runner-up team collected 150 points and $29,310.
“Our boys were absolute under dogs from first round to finals. So, big win for them. In fact, Rithvik won his first Tour event match in this tournament,”, said coach M Balachandran from Almaty.
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“Mansouri served at 9-6, and they had two more match points. To win 14-12 in super tie-break in first final was unbelievable. Rithvik and Arjun had to play some incredible tennis to achieve it”, Balachandran said.
“They improved every match and stuck to the process of working on their game, individually and as a team. After every match, we worked on certain areas and they executed it well in the subsequent match, which I think was the key to their success,” said the coach.
Balu was quite pleased with the way the duo executed the tactics and played “near flawless” in the semifinals.
The big morale booster was the quarterfinal victory over second seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul of France.
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