NEW DELHI: The Indian duo of Armaan Bhatia and Harsh Mehta beat Roman Estareja and Mitchell Hargreaves to win the maiden Men’s Doubles Title at the India Masters in New Delhi, which is on its final day on Sunday, October 27 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association Stadium in the city.
Notably, this was Armaan’s third title of the day, having won the men’s singles and mixed doubles titles earlier.
In the first game, a brilliant crosscourt backhand from Armaan saw the Indians bag the first point. Estareja and Hargreaves could only bag the first point when a shot from the latter landed beyond Armaan’s reach and the score was at 3-1.
The Indian duo soon bagged the first game 11-3 and although the margin was big, Roman and Mitchell ensured that their opponents didn’t have an easy time against them, with both pairs being almost equal in performance.
In the second game, after the change of ends, an unforced error from Hargreaves saw the Indians again bag the first point. Estareja and Hargreaves could only bag their first points after one of Harsh’s shots landed into the net, and the scorecard read 4-1.
The Indian duo didn’t waste much time in the second game and in no time, they sailed to 11-2, to win the men’s doubles title.
Earlier, Armaan and Harsh breezed through the opening two rounds, first with a 15-5 win against compatriots Harsh Shah and Dhiren Patel, followed by a win by the same margin against Kenta Miyoshi and Tom Evans. They faced a bit of a challenge in the quarters, against Leander Lazaro and Willy Chung but managed to win the tie 11-10, 4-11, 11-6.
In the semifinal, Armaan and Harsh beat seventh-seeded Jason Taylor and Jai Grewal 11-3, 11-9 to sail into the summit showdown.
The Estareja-Hargreaves duo beat Shivraj Bhati and Vivaan Patel 15-0 in the opening round and then followed it up with a 15-1 win against Ravi Ranjan and Diwakar Agarwal. In the quarterfinals, they faced a slight challenge from the Indian duo of Divyanshu Katari and Ronav Motiani but won the match 2-11, 11-6, 11-5.
In the semifinals, Estareja and Hargreaves beat third-seed pair of Dusty Boyer and Naveen Beasley 11-9, 11-7 to move into the finals. (ANI)