Pickleball Masters: Armaan Bhatia claims treble

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New Delhi: Egged on by a partisan residence crowd, India’s Armaan Bhatia rode on his good kind to finish the treble on the $50,000 PWR DUPR India Masters Pickleball match, successful the boys’s singles and doubles, and combined doubles on the Delhi Garden Tennis Affiliation Stadium (DLTA) right here on Sunday.

India’s Armaan Bhatia performs in the course of the PWR DUPR 2024 Masters Pickleball match on the RK Khanna Stadium, New Delhi on Sunday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photograph)

Bhatia’s first victory of the day got here within the singles ultimate the place he was up in opposition to fellow tennis pro-turned pickleball participant from USA, Dusty Boyer. The 25-year-old Indian, seeded second within the competitors, confirmed outstanding grit to return again from a recreation all the way down to trend the victory in three gruelling video games.

Bhatia sped to a 3-0 lead earlier than high seed Boyer went on a six-point spree to make it 6-3 in his favour. Relying closely on his baseline play, the American wrapped up the opening recreation 11-8. The second recreation was one other intently fought affair with Bhatia eking out a 11-9 win.

Boyer got here flying off the blocks within the decider, galloping to an 8-0 lead earlier than Bhatia dug deep into his reserves to win 11 factors on the bounce and wrap up the win, bringing the sizeable weekend crowd to life. The ultimate scoreline learn 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 within the Indian’s favour.

Bhatia had an excellent run to the trophy that started by beating fellow Indian Aashutosh Mehta 15-1 within the first spherical. He then went previous Ronav Motiani 15-7 earlier than prevailing in an all-Indian quarter-final in opposition to fifth-seed Aditya Ruhela 10-11, 11-9, 11-5. Within the semis, Armaan stormed previous Willy Chung 11-4, 11-1.

Later within the night, Bhatia teamed up with Netherlands’ Roos van Reek to win the combined professional doubles ultimate, beating the Australian pair of George Wall and Danni Elle Townsend.

Bhatia and van Reek began strongly and maintained a helpful lead all through the primary recreation with the Indian banking on his superior web recreation and quick fingers. Turning up shortly after taking the ladies’s doubles title with Kaitlynn Hart, Van Reek didn’t present any fatigue because the Indian-Dutch duo took the primary recreation 11-5.

Within the second recreation, each pairs traded factors at first. After a short benefit for Bhatia and van Reek, Wall and Townsend fought again to degree the scores at 5-5. The Aussies didn’t let the momentum slip and took the sport 11-10 to power the third.

The decider was a veritable cakewalk for Bhatia and van Reek as their opponents appeared to have run out of steam on a damp night. The Indo-Dutch pair gained 11-5, 10-11, 11-1.

Within the final ultimate of the night, Bhatia teamed up with Harsh Mehta to thrash USA’s Roman Estareja and Aussie Mitchell Hargreaves within the professional males’s doubles ultimate 11-3, 11-2.

The Indians went on an early offensive and put the American-Australian pair beneath large strain. A superb crosscourt backhand from Armaan noticed the Indians bag the primary level. The Indians then seized the momentum and routinely discovered the gaps as Estareja and Hargreaves proved no match for them.

Earlier, Bhatia and Harsh breezed by means of the opening two rounds, scoring a 15-5 win in opposition to India’s Harsh Shah and Dhiren Patel adopted by one other 15-5 rout of Kenta Miyoshi and Tom Evans. In quarters, they defeated Leander Lazaro and Willy Chung 11-10, 4-11, 11-6. They then prevailed over seventh-seeds Jason Taylor and Jai Grewal 11-3, 11-9 to achieve the ultimate.

Bhatia was elated. “It’s been a great day. The game plan throughout the day was to keep things simple and play each point as it comes. Playing three finals in a day isn’t easy but I have a great support team that kept me fresh through the day.”

The teenager hopes to construct on this success at residence.

“I believe Pickleball has the potential to grow really fast in India. My grooming in tennis helped, but there’s a lot of fresh talent coming through. I see a lot of youngsters taking up the sport. I wish to play in the US where the game has a huge following.”