Lexington, Aug 9 (IANS) India’s Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Ecuador’s Gonzalo Escobar battled back from a set down to win the men’s doubles title at the Lexington Open, an ATP Challenger 75 tournament.
The third-seeded pair defeated American duo Andre Ilagan and Karl Poling 6-7 (1), 6-3, 11-9 in the final that lasted an hour and 42 minutes in Lexington, Kentucky.
This was Poonacha’s 11th ATP Challenger doubles crown and fifth of the 2026 season. It was Poonacha’s and Escobar’s first title together on the ATP Challenger circuit.
The 31-year-old Indian won the Open Sopra Steria de Lyon with Thailand’s Pruchya Isaro in June. He had also won the Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger 50 with Saketh Myneni and the Menorca ATP Challenger 100 and Chennai ATP Challenger 50 with Isaro earlier this year.
In the first set, the Indian-Ecuadorian pair secured an early break in the fourth game, but were pegged back when they lost serve in the seventh. In a tie-break, Poonacha and Escobar were unable to find a response and went down 7-1.
The duo mounted a comeback in the second set, securing a break in the third game. They held their advantage through the set before producing another decisive break in the ninth game to take the final into a super tie-breaker, Olympics.com reports.
In the super tie-break, neither team was able to establish a lead of more than two points as the contest remained finely poised. Poonacha and Escobar, however, found themselves staring at defeat at 7-9.
The Indian-Ecuadorian duo then responded with four points in a row to turn the match around. They saved two match points in the process before completing the comeback to seal the title.
Poonacha and Escobar had to overcome the tournament’s top seeds Chinese Taipei’s Ray Ho and Ivan Liutarevich of Belarus on their way to the title.
–IANS
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