Gille/Vliegen Deny Home Favourites For Pune Title

  • Posted: Jan 07, 2023

Gille/Vliegen Deny Home Favourites For Pune Title

Jan072023

Belgians win sixth tour-level title

Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen opened the 2023 season in style with a flawless trophy run at the Tata Open Maharashtra, winning the Pune ATP 250 title without dropping a set in four matches.

The longtime partners defeated the Indian duo of N.Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 6-4 in Saturday’s Pune final to win their sixth ATP Tour title as a team. The fourth seeds improved to 6-2 in tour-level finals, with all of their final runs coming as a pair.

“It’s been a fantastic week,” said Gille. “We didn’t really know what to expect, as this is the first time that we came to India. But right from the start we felt good. It was a great atmosphere and a well organised tournament. We played very well and we’re super happy to get the sixth title.”


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Added Vliegen: “The crowd today was fantastic. They came out in big numbers and supported the local guys a lot but were also very fair towards us, so really big thanks. We don’t always get a chance to play in front of a crowd like that, so really amazing.”

Breaks of serve in the third game of each set proved enough for Gille/Vliegen to claim the title, with the Belgians capitalising in both games in which they created a break chance. They won two of four break points and did not face a break point on their own serve for the third time on the week.

Broken just once in Pune in the quarter-finals, the Belgians upset top seeds and reigning Nitto ATP Finals champs Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-6(3), 7-6(4) in the semis before backing up the win with a clinical performance in the final.

“Throughout the whole week, the serve has been a very important factor,” Gille added, discussing the slick court conditions in Pune.

Gille and Vliegen first teamed up in 2013 at an ITF event in Belgium, and they now hold an 83-83 tour-level record as a team. Both players hold career-high Pepperstone ATP Rankings inside the Top 30, with their five previous ATP Tour titles coming in 2019 Bastad, 2019 Gstaad, 2019 Zhuhai, 2020 Astana and 2021 Singapore.

Balaji and Nedunchezhiyan were competing in their first tour-level final as a team after a late entry into the event as alternates, with both ranked just outside the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. Balaji, 32, contested his first ATP Tour doubles final, while Nedunchezhiyan, 34, was seeking his second tour-level doubles crown after a 2017 Chennai triumph with countryman Rohan Bopanna.

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