Indian duo of Payas-Ankur loses men’s doubles final at WTT Contender Buenos Aires

Indian pair of Payas Jain and Ankur Bhattacharjee lost the men’s doubles final at the WTT Contender Buenos Aires 1-3 on Sunday to Japan’s Kazuki Hamada and Hiromu Kobayashi.

The summit clash lasted almost 30 minutes which saw the Indians attempt a fightback in the third and fourth games, but to no avail.

The Japanese duo took a quick 2-0 lead after notching up 11-5 and 11-7 scores in the first two games.

Payas and Ankur then opened their account in the final in the third game. Hamada and Kobayashi were leading 4-3 when the Indians took a timeout. The Japanese paddlers continued to motor on even after the break but the Indians recovered from being 3-6 down to clinching the game 11-9.

The fourth game was closely contested. The Indian paddlers took the first three points but their opponents caught up. There were patches when Payas and Ankur had a slender lead on the Japanese but Hamada and Kobayashi were never too far from catching up. At 9-9, a service fault from Payas was the last thing the trailing pair. The final rally saw Ankur mistiming a backhand return which ensured Hamada and Kobayashi’s first title since pairing up in men’s doubles.

Earlier in the tournament, the mixed doubles pair of Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade went down 3-0 (17-15, 11-7, 13-11) in a tightly-contested final to the second-seeded Brazilian duo of Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahashi in 30 minutes.

India’s singles campaign ended with Manav Thakkar suffering a straight games defeat in the semifinals after Ayhika Mukherjee bowed out in the quarterfinals.