Saketh Myneni got himself in line for two gold medals by reaching the finals of both men's doubles and mixed doubles events even as other Indian tennis players, including Sania Mirza, clinched three bronze at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sunday.
Saketh and Sanam Singh overcame experienced Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the men's doubles semi-finals, which lasted 67 minutes.
Later in the day, the big-serving Myneni combined with seasoned doubles exponent Sania to reach the mixed doubles summit clash with a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Chinese pair of Zie Zheng and Ze Zhang.
The result meant that 28-year-old will have a chance to win two gold medals in his maiden Asian Games appearance.
Sania-Thombare got bronze in women’s doubles
Chandigarh lad Sanam now has the opportunity to win his second consecutive Games gold, having won the yellow metal with Somdev Devvarman at the 2010 edition.
Earlier, Sania and Prarthana Thombare settled for a bronze, losing the women's doubles semi-final 6-7 (1), 6-2, 10-4 to Chinese Taipei's Chin Wei Chan and Su Wei Hsieh.
Sania and Prarthana fought hard to take the opening frame set to a tiebreaker. The Taipei duo finally managed to take the lead after nearly an hour's play.
The Indians, however, came back strongly in the second set and managed to prevail over their higher ranked opponents in just 32 minutes.
But the deciding Match Tie-break turned out to be a cake-walk for the Taipei combination as they took barely 10
minutes to seal it 10-4 and draw the curtains on the tie.
It was seventh Asian Games medal for Sania and first for Prarthana.
Yuki gets lone singles bronze medal
Yuki Bhambri clinched India's lone singles' medal in this edition, after settling for a bronze in the men's event following a 6-3, 2-6, 1-6 loss to Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in the semi-final.
Yuki won another bronze medal for India when he and Divij Sharan, seeded fourth, lost 7-6 (6), 6-7 (6), 9-11 to Korean pair of Lim Yongkyu and Chung Hyeonas.
Their defeat prevented an all-Indian final and now it will be the eighth seeded Koreans who will challenge Sanam and Myneni for the gold.
Nevertheless, in the absence of star players, Indian youngsters have so far put up a commendable show. Somdev, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna pulled out of the quadrennial event to take care of their rankings on the professional circuit.
First to take field was Yuki for the men's singles semi-final. The 22 year-old Delhi youngster started brilliantly and took a little over half hour to pocket the opening set but the match turned on its head in the very next set.
Yuki missed several good opportunities
The Japanese raised his game, helped by the sudden surge in the number of unforced errors committed by the Indian.
In the end, it was a case of missed opportunities for Yuki. In the previous edition of the Games, Somdev had won India's first ever men's singles gold.
Later Yuki met with another defeat with left-handed Divij Sharan in a closely-fought men's doubles contest against the Korean pair. They even had two match-points leading the second set tie-break 6-4 before Divij netted a drop shot and Yuki missed the next point as the Koreans drew level at 8-6.
It was a stiff fight in the 'Super Tie-break' in which the Korean pair held their nerve to make it to the final
However, Sanam and Myneni, who had not dropped a set till the semi-final stage, assured India of at-least a silver by taming the Thai twins.
