Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan got the better of his compatriot Leander Paes, winning his second title in a row. He lifted the Monterrey ATP Challenger in Mexico with new partner Marcelo Arevalo on Sunday.
The Chennai southpaw and partner, who won the ATP Chengdu Open last week, got the better of veteran Leander Paes and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 6-1, 6-4 in the final of the $150,000 tournament.
However, there was disappointment in store for Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina, who both fell in the last round of qualifying for the ATP Shanghai Masters and WTA Tianjin Open respectively.
While Ramkumar lost to world No 98 Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(4), 4-6, 5-7 while Raina lost Zhang Yuxuan 7-5, 0-6, 3-6.
It is Jeevan’s fourth title win this season on the Challenger circuit, having triumphed in Winnetka, Ilkley and Dallas, and fifth overall.
He had ended runner-up at Nottingham, Savannah, Tallahassee and Lille with regular partner Austin Krajicek from USA.
“I was 0-40 down on my serve in the third game of the first set but I did good job keeping composure, making lot of first serves. There were a couple of uncharacteristic errors to go down 0-40 but we regrouped and had a vital hold,” Jeevan told PTI.
“Getting that hold from 0-40 was key. We got a break in the next game and Marcelo served strong for a 4-1 lead. The momentum was with us,” he said explaining the key points.
“In the second set, it was 1-0 for them, we were serving on deuce and Lee (Leander) played a great game to get the break, they were 2-0 up. Lee was playing very well. He seems to be playing better than a given point of time in this season. I feel he still has a lot of good tournaments in him to be honest after seeing him the way he is playing right now,” Jeevan said.
“We played a good game to break back. Then we fought hard for a hold. Then we won a deuce game to go 5-4 up. We were 0-30 down serving for the match but I came up with some good serves and finished it at the net. “
Talking about his new partnership with Arevalo, he said, “Marcelo is a big guy, he has a big serve and makes strong returns. He helps out with my serve because he is a big guy with range.”
With inputs from PTI
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