Tennis: Ramkumar Ramanathan / Saketh Myneni settle for doubles silver
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni settled for the men's doubles silver medal at the Asian Games after being edged by Chinese Taipei's Hsu Yu-Hsiou and Jason Jung but India's hopes of winning a gold from the tennis courts is still alive with the mixed team reaching the title clash on Friday (September 29).
In the men's doubles event, the Taipei team was unseeded but both Hsu (182) and Jung (231) were better-ranked singles players and it showed in their ground strokes and the way they went about their business in a 6-4 6-4 victory against the second-seeded Indians in the title clash.
It is Ramkumar's first Asian Games medal and third for Myneni, who had won a men's doubles silver with Sanam Singh and a gold with Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles in the 2014 Incheon edition.
"It is my first Asian Games medal, I always wanted to win a medal for India. It was one of my goals and that too coming with Saki (Saketh), very happy about it," Ramanathan said.
"Asian Games is huge and obviously, it's a huge thing to win a medal. But every tournament for us is as huge as the Asian Games. This is a profession, we do this for a living, and we enjoy what we do. Hopefully, we can get more medals for the country the next time," added Ramkumar, who has endured a tough 2023 season.
"Unfortunately we came one short but very happy with whatever we played this week. I think we played some good tennis, and credit to Chinese Taipei today in the final. So very happy with the contribution with the medal to the Indian contingent," Myneni said.
"It's a privilege to play for the country and wear the tri-colour and compete. I think very few times we do that in a year. So it's a great competition, a great event. So glad we could make a contribution."
The Indian tennis contingent is still in contention for a gold medal with Bopanna and Bhosale making the mixed doubles final with a dominating win.
The duo of Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale outplayed the Chinese Taipei combine of Chan Hao-ching and Yu-Hsiou Hsu 6-1 6-3 in the mixed doubles semifinal.
