Chandril Sood and Lakshit Sood bagged their seventh ITF Futures doubles title following a 2-6, 6-4, [10-6] win over N. Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan in the final of the $15,000 tournament here on Friday.
For a set and a half, though, the second seeds seemed to have little hope. Balaji and Vishnu, who had won a hat-trick of titles leading up to this competition, broke twice — in the fourth and eighth games — to pocket the first set. In the sixth game, the Soods did earn a break-point, but even that vanished into thin air.
At 3-3 in the second set however, the pattern changed. An expertly disguised down-the-line return helped the brothers get to a break-point. Even as that was squandered, on the subsequent chance Balaji aided them with an error in judgement by choosing to poach.
Two convincing holds later, Chandril and Lakshit had evened it at one set apiece.
In the match tie-break, the brothers took a 5-2 lead. The gap slightly narrowed at 6-4 but a great down-the-line shot by Chandril helped it stretch again.
When Balaji planted an easy volley into the net, it gave the Soods their first match-point. They gladly took it, with Chandril executing a fine backhand return.
Balaji will have a chance to make amends when he meets Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the singles final on Saturday. While the former overcame a battling Karunuday Singh 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, the latter had a relatively easy path, beating German Sami Reiwein 6-4, 6-4.
The results: Semifinals: N. Sriram Balaji bt Karunuday Singh 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Sami Reiwein (Ger) 6-4, 6-4. Doubles final: Chandril Sood & Lakshit Sood bt Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan 2-6, 6-4, [10-6].
