Arjun Kadhe/Rithvik Bollipalli win maiden ATP Tour title at Almaty Open

Maharashtra tennis player Arjun Kadhe and Rithvik Bollipalli of Telangana won their maiden title on the ATP Tour, producing a stunning comeback to win the men’s doubles title at the Almaty Open 2024 ATP 250 tennis tournament at Almaty in Kazakhstan on Sunday.

The Pune-based Kadhe and Bollipalli defeated Colombia’s Nicolas Barrientos and Tunisia’s Skander Mansouri 3-6, 7-6(3), 14-12 in a super tiebreaker to win the title, their first on the ATP Tour, both as individuals and as a team. The first-time Indian combine, who had won a Challenger title in Olbia (Italy), last year, reached their first ATP Tour final as a team after beating the German team of Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner 7-6(6), 6-3 in the semifinals, according to information reaching here on Sunday.

Earlier in the event, Kadhe and Bollipalli had defeated Italy’s Marco Bortolotti and Finland’s Patrik Niklas-Salminen in the opening round before stunning France’s Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul, the second seeds, in the quarters.

Kadhe and Bollipalli made an indifferent start and were pushed onto the backfoot right from the start as they lost their very first service game and ended up losing the first set. The second set was a tight affair with neither team dropping a serve until 6-6. The Indian duo levelled the set score by coming on top in the tie-breaker.

They were on the brink of defeat in the ensuing super tiebreak, down 6-9 as Barrientos and Mansouri came out firing. Kadhe and Bollipalli fought back to clinch the match and title, saving five championship points before emerging as the winner in the match that lasted one hour and 41 minutes.

Earlier, Indian star Yuki Bhambri and France’s Albano Olivetti, the third seeds, were ousted in the opening round by Schnaitter and Wallner. The fourth-seeded team of India’s N. Sriram Balaji and Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi were ousted in the semifinals by Barrientos and Mansouri.