Yuki Bhambri emerged triumphant in the contest between the country's leading tennis players, brushing aside the challenge of India No 1 Somdev Devvarman in straight sets to breeze into the final of the ATP Challenger in Chennai on Friday.
Ranked 71 places below his compatriot at 174, he beat the top seeded Somdev 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 41 minutes in the semi-finals of the US $50,000 hard court event.
Later, Yuki also made it to the doubles final.
He and New Zealand’s Michael Venus trounced Ruben Gonzales and Artem Sitak 6-2, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
In his singles match, seventh seed Yuki capitalised on two of the five break-points he earned to take the first set.
An intense battle followed in the second set as both players struggled to hold serve.
Yuki lost his thrice but did well to break Somdev four times and close out the contest.
He will meet unseeded Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev, who shocked second seed and compatriot Evgeny Donskoy 7-6(4), 6-3 in the other semi-final.
It will be Yuki's third Challenger final in his career.
Last year, he won the Traralgon event in Australia and ended runner-up in Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
In the doubles, the second seeded Indo-Kiwi pair will face India's N Sriram Balaji and Blaz Rola, who defeated Ti Chen and Marek Semjan 6-3, 7-6(5) in an hour and 15 minutes.
Image: Yuki Bhambri
Photograph: Getty Images
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