Goransson/Rungkat Capture Maiden Team Title In Pune
Goransson/Rungkat Capture Maiden Team Title In Pune
Unseeded team clinches trophy in Match Tie-break
Andre Goransson and Christopher Rungkat completed their first appearances at the Tata Open Maharashtra in style on Sunday, beating third seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 to lift their maiden ATP Tour title as a team in Pune.
The unseeded pairing saved six of seven break points in a tense championship match, with Rungkat firing a forehand return winner to clinch the trophy after 71 minutes. Goransson and Rungkat were making their fifth appearance as a team, with a runner-up finish at the 2019 Hyogo Noah Challenger in Kobe marking their previous best result.
The Swedish-Indonesian tandem defeated two seeded pairings en route to the title. Alongside their final win against Erlich and Vasilevski, Goransson and Rungkat recovered from a set down to overcome fourth seeds Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Denys Molchanov in the first round.
Erlich and Vasilevski were also bidding to capture their first team title, following a runner-up finish on their team debut at last month’s Apis Canberra International (Bendigo), an ATP Challenger Tour event. Erlich drops to 21-21 in tour-level doubles finals. Vasilevski was aiming to lift his first ATP Tour trophy after falling in his only previous final appearance at the Generali Open in 2017 (w/Podlipnik-Castillo).
Goransson and Rungkat gain 250 FedEx ATP Doubles Ranking points and split $30,900 in prize money. Erlich and Vasilevski receive 150 points and share $15,840.