Palembang: Ankita Raina played her heart out against top seed Shuai Zhang before settling for bronze, while Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan used all their experience to bounce back and enter the men’s doubles final in tennis events of the Asian Games, here Thursday. Another medal was assured when World No. 161 Prajnesh Gunneswaran outlasted 273rd ranked Kwon Soonwoo of South Korea 6-7(2-7 ), 6-4, 7-6(8-6) in a marathon quarterfinal lasting almost four hours.
Earlier, against World No. 34 from China and a Grand Slam quarterfinalist, the 189th ranked Raina had nothing to lose. She went for her shots and that surprised her seasoned opponent. But then the experienced Chinese held her own to win 6-4, 7-6(8-6). After this effort, Ankita became India’s second women’s singles medallist at the Asian Games.
“She played very well today. It was a tough match. If she keeps on playing this, she can get into the top 100 and may be even top50,” Zhang, who reached the 2016 Australian Open quarterfinals, was generous in her praise.
Raina was expectedly disappointed at the result. “I came here to win gold. Hopefully, I can do that in mixed doubles (with Bopanna). She is obviously an experienced player but I thought I could beat her,” Raina said.
Earlier, Bopanna and Sharan survived a scare against the Japanese combo of S Shimbakuro and Uesugi Kaito before winning 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
“We had to change the strategy. They were playing really well. They were taken aback when we switched sides. They did not see it coming. It was a close match and in the super tier-break we held our nerves,” Bopanna said.
Kit sponsors create mess
Palembang: Handed pocket-less playing shorts by the official apparel sponsors, the Indian men’s tennis team turned up for their Asian Games matches Thursday in kits provided by personal sponsors, whose logos were concealed by tapes. After IOA pointed out that they were not supposed to wear shorts of brands other than Li Ning, the players today turned up in taped clothing hiding their sponsors’ logo. Unlike other sports, tennis players cannot play with pocket-less shorts as they have to keep spare balls in them. “It is not at all the fault of the tennis players. They have been wearing the official kit even in training. But since there are no pockets in shorts, they have no option but to wear what they have,” said a source in the IOA.