Knowle-Kohlmann win the Tata Open Doubles Title
[Chennai, Press Trust of India]
CHENNAI: Julian Knowle of Austria and Michael Kholmann of Germany stunned fourth seeded Czech combine of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 7-6 (7/1) 7-6 (7/3) to lift the doubles title in the Tata Indian Open Tennis championship on Sunday.
The keenly-contested match saw booming serves and brilliant winners. The two pairs reserved their best for the tie-break in both the sets after 22 of the 24 games went on serve.
The winners became richer by $26,550 while the Czech pair collected $15,630.
In both the tie-breaks, the lower ranked Austrian-German pair played better and looked under no pressure.
The Czech pair, with a good measure of experience having won six titles between them, could not break their opponents' serves, barring once each in the second set.
With the players most often being bang on target with their first serves, their partners were left with an easy job of finishing and few rallies were seen in the whole match.
Though the crowd missed an opportunity to see India's tennis greats, Bhupathi and Leander Paes play together, the almost packed stadium was treated to some good brand of tennis displayed by the finalists.
The fourth seeded Cermak and Friedl, who ousted the top seeded Mahesh Buhpathi and Tod Woodbridge in straight sets in the semifinal, held the edge in the second set, breaking Knowle in the eighth game, but got a dose of their own medicine in the very next game when Friedl was broken on three break points.
Serving for the set, Friedl only managed to concede three break points as Kholman pulled off stunning returns after the former's attempted volley found the net and finally won the match when Fridl sent his forehand long.
[Chennai, Press Trust of India]
CHENNAI: Julian Knowle of Austria and Michael Kholmann of Germany stunned fourth seeded Czech combine of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 7-6 (7/1) 7-6 (7/3) to lift the doubles title in the Tata Indian Open Tennis championship on Sunday.
The keenly-contested match saw booming serves and brilliant winners. The two pairs reserved their best for the tie-break in both the sets after 22 of the 24 games went on serve.
The winners became richer by $26,550 while the Czech pair collected $15,630.
In both the tie-breaks, the lower ranked Austrian-German pair played better and looked under no pressure.
The Czech pair, with a good measure of experience having won six titles between them, could not break their opponents' serves, barring once each in the second set.
With the players most often being bang on target with their first serves, their partners were left with an easy job of finishing and few rallies were seen in the whole match.
Though the crowd missed an opportunity to see India's tennis greats, Bhupathi and Leander Paes play together, the almost packed stadium was treated to some good brand of tennis displayed by the finalists.
The fourth seeded Cermak and Friedl, who ousted the top seeded Mahesh Buhpathi and Tod Woodbridge in straight sets in the semifinal, held the edge in the second set, breaking Knowle in the eighth game, but got a dose of their own medicine in the very next game when Friedl was broken on three break points.
Serving for the set, Friedl only managed to concede three break points as Kholman pulled off stunning returns after the former's attempted volley found the net and finally won the match when Fridl sent his forehand long.
