Asian Games 2023: Indian icon Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale on Saturday clinched the Gold medal in the mixed doubles event at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The duo clinched India's 9th Gold after winning a thrilling final in a tie-breaker against En-shuo Liang and Tsung-hao Huang of Chinese Taipei. Bopanna and Rutuja defeated their opponents with a 6-2, 3-6, and 4-10 to take India's 35th medal at the Asiad.
The Indians had lost the first set 2-6 but then made a stunning comeback to clinch the second set and push the match into the tie-breaker. The Indian duo then won the tie-breaker 10-4 to take the yellow metal in a 1 hour 14-minute affair. The win assured India of a Gold medal in every edition of the Asiad since 2002. This is Bopanna's second-consecutive Gold at the Asiad after his 2018 men's doubles Gold. For Bhosale, this is her first at the Games.
Notably, Bopanna was earlier knocked out from the men's doubles event. Top-seeded Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri suffered shock elimination in the second round after losing to Uzbekistan's Sergey Fomin and Khumoyun Sultanov. The Indian duo was touted to be the Gold medal favourite. Notably, this is India's second medal in Tennis at the Asiad after the nation secured a Silver in men's doubles final. India missed out on a gold in tennis as Saketh Myneni and Ramanathan Ramkumar lost in the men's doubles final. India now has 35 medals in total after bagging a Silver earlier in the day.
