Izmir, Turkey: India's Divij Sharan and Saketh Myneni earned a shot at their first Challenger title together in the 2015 season by reaching the final of the Izmir Cup, here.
The third seeded Indians humbled top seeds Gero Kretaschmer and Alexander Satschko 6-3 3-6 11-9 in the semifinals of the Euro 64000 hard court tournament last night.
Left-handed Delhi boy Sharan and Myneni had lost to the same pair at the Shenzhen Challenger final in March this year.
The Germans broke Saketh in the very first game of the match but Sharan and Myneni raced to a 4-1 lead with two consecutive breaks. When Myneni served for the set, they were down 15-40 but managed to save three break points. Myneni fired an ace on deuce and sealed the set.
In the second set, Sharan dropped his serve at 3-4 and went on to lose the set. However the Indians tamed the fighting Germans with some smart tennis in the Match tie-breaker.
"We played some aggressive tennis today. They went after our serves more than the previous matches and were aggressive with our returns as well," Sharan said of the match lasting an hour and 15 minutes.
They will now fight it out with Malek Jaziri from Tunisia and Denis Molchanov from Ukraine in the final.
Sharan has already won one title this season with Ken Skupski in Guzzini (Italy) in July. Apart from ending runner-up at Shenzhen with Myneni, Sharan also ended finalist with Hyeon Chung at Sarasota Open in April.
It will be third final of the season for Myneni. He ended runner-up at Honking event in January with compatriot Sanam Singh.
