The Indo-Kiwi duo of Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak has to face heartbreak after the duo suffered an excruciating defeat in the ASB Classic quarter-finals. The Indo-Kiwi duo lost 7-5 6-7 (3) 11-9 to the Belgian pair of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
The pair of India’s Divij Sharan and New Zealand’s Artem Sitak were very close to booking a spot in the ASB Classic doubles semifinals as they made a winning start to the match by clinching the first set 7-5.
The Indo-Kiwi duo could have registered a victory in the second set itself as they had two match points at 5-6 in the second set. However, things did not turn out well for the Sharan-Sitak as they could not take the match point and the set went into a tie break. The Belgian pair of Gille and Vliegen won the first three points in the tiebreak and they ended up taking the second set 7-3.
In the decider, Sitak and Sharan got a mini-break, although it didn’t last and they changed ends at 3-3. They switched back at 6-6 and once more at 9-9, but on the next point Sitak put a volley out to set up match point and on it, Sharan hit another volley into the net to be knocked out of the tournament.
Earlier, the Indo-Kiwi duo had outsmarted the top seed Australian-Kiwi pair of John Peers and Michael Venus 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3).
On the other hand, the Indo-Finnish pair of Rohan Bopanna and Henri Kontinen had to face a similar fate at the ASB Classic doubles quarters after they were beaten 3-6,4-6 by Japanese-British pair of Ben McLachlan and Luke Bambridge.
The Indo-Finnish pair of Rohan Bopanna and Henri Kontinen had booked the place in the last eight of the tournament after they had shut the door on wild card entrants Cameron Norrie and Rhett Purcell with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
