The Sood twins, Lakshit and Chandril, hardly look threatening on the tennis court, with an unimposing height and physique.
The twins, however, showed that those perceived drawbacks fade to the background when the mind, body and partner are in perfect sync.
The 24-year-olds bagged their maiden men’s title at this level when they defeated V.M. Ranjeet and Sriram Balaji 4-6, 7-5 (15-13) in the doubles final of the MCC-S.R. Subramaniam memorial International Tennis Federation men’s Futures tournament at Madras Cricket Club courts here on Friday.
The match tiebreak saw the twins take a handy 8-4 lead. The Sriram and Ranjeet pair, which has bagged more than a dozen titles, fought back to level the scores at 9-9.
Finally, the twins clinched the tie on their third match point — Sriram and Ranjeet had two — when Ranjeet hit a forehand long.
“We are glad to win our first title here. We reached the final of the MCC-adidas National junior (u-14) championship here. It is a sort of lucky venue for us,” said Chandril.
Russia’s Ivan Gakhov, the fifth seed, will clash with Vijay Sundar Prashanth, seeded fourth, in the singles final to be held on Saturday.
Gakhov overcame a stiff challenge from Ranjeet to triumph 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 while Vijay Sundar Prashanth outwitted Sriram Balaji, seeded two, 7-5, 6-4.
The results:
Doubles: Final: Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt N. Sriram Balaji & V.M. Ranjeet 4-6, 7-5 (15-13).
Singles: Semifinals: Ivan Gakhov bt V.M. Ranjeet 6-4, 5-7, 7-5; Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt N. Sriram Balaji 7-5, 6-4.