Grigoriy and Ishaque win doubles crown; Max Houkes to meet Karan Singh in singles final

Second seeds Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan and Ishaque Eqbal of India clinched the men’s doubles crown at the Hyderabad Open ITF $15K men’s tennis tournament at the Lake View Tennis Academy in Hyderabad on Saturday.

In the final, the duo defeated fourth seeds Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg of Switzerland and Vanshelboim Eric of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3 to claim the title.

Top seed Max Houkes of the Netherlands will take on third seed Karan Singh in the men’s singles final on Sunday.

Max Houkes brooked no challenge as he put aside Timofei Derepasko’s challenge 6-3, 6-4. The Dutch player won the first set comfortably at 6-3 but Timofei tried to put up a fight in the second set. He came close but it was not sufficient to prevent Houkes from winning the set at 6-4 and book his berth in the final.

On the other hand, Karan Singh was stretched by American Keshav Chopra 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. The Indian origin player has had a wonderful week at the Hyderabad Open. But on Saturday, he ran out of steam against the third seed Indian However, he did not surrender without a fight.

Keshav began well and stunned the Indian on way to a 6-4 win in the first set. However, Karan was not giving it up so easily. He charged back and won the second one after a grim battle on the court. Karan took the second set at 7-5 and stretched the game into the decider.

In the final set, both players fought on grimly, but it was the Indian who prevailed 6-4 to earn the right to take on Max Houkes in the final.

Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan and Ishaque Eqbal of India with former National champion S Narendranath and Praveen Bhargava

Results: Men’s singles (semifinals): 3-Karan Singh (IND) beat Keshav Chopra (USA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4; 1-Max Houkes (NED) beat Timofei Derepasko 6-3, 6-4.

Men’s doubles (finals): 2-Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ)/ Ishaque Eqbal (IND) beat 4-Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg (SUI)/ Vanshelboim Eric (UKR) 6-2, 6-3.