Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna and Harsh Mankad set up a final clash against each other in the $ 10,000 ITF event after winning their respective singles semi-finals in Chandigarh on Friday.
Mankad stunned third seed Hyun-Woo Nam of Korea 6-4, 4-6, 5-7 en route to the final against India's top singles player Bopanna, who overcame a fighting Divij Sharan 6-4, 7-5.
Mankad now has a chance to have a shot at second title at the event after winning the final of the doubles along with partner Rupesh Roy.
The Mankad-Roy combine defeated third seed duo of Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja 6-3, 6-4 at the CLTA Complex.
Such was the intensity of the match that Bopanna and Sharan played the longest game --seventh in the first set--of the tournament inducing 10 Deuces.
Bopanna broke his rival to gain a 4-3 lead and held his serve to make it 5-3. The next two games went with the serve with the first set going Bopanna's way.
Dropping his serve in the very first game of the second set, Sharan came back well to lead 5-4 but Bopanna's experience helped him tame Sharan and seal the match.
The second semifinal was an engrossing affair as both Mankad and Nam fighting tooth and nail, which stretched the match to two hours and 40 minutes.
Both the players stroked fluently as the first set went with the serve till the eighth game before Mankad committed a double fault to drop his serve in the ninth game to give Nam a 5-4 lead.
The Korean then held his serve to bag the first set.
The second set was virtually repeat of the first. After tied four-all, Nam was broken in the 10th game and Mankad won 6-4 to stretch the match to the third set.
Undeterred by the bad the start to the deciding set, Mankad broke Nam in the sixth and 12th games to seal a final match berth.
