New Delhi: Egged on by a partisan home crowd, India’s Armaan Bhatia rode on his brilliant form to complete the treble at the $50,000 PWR DUPR India Masters Pickleball tournament, winning the men’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association Stadium (DLTA) here on Sunday.
Bhatia’s first victory of the day came in the singles final where he was up against fellow tennis pro-turned pickleball player from USA, Dusty Boyer. The 25-year-old Indian, seeded second in the competition, showed remarkable grit to come back from a game down to fashion the victory in three gruelling games.
Bhatia sped to a 3-0 lead before top seed Boyer went on a six-point spree to make it 6-3 in his favour. Relying heavily on his baseline play, the American wrapped up the opening game 11-8. The second game was another closely fought affair with Bhatia eking out a 11-9 win.
Boyer came flying off the blocks in the decider, galloping to an 8-0 lead before Bhatia dug deep into his reserves to win 11 points on the bounce and wrap up the win, bringing the sizeable weekend crowd to life. The final scoreline read 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 in the Indian’s favour.
Bhatia had a brilliant run to the trophy that began by beating fellow Indian Aashutosh Mehta 15-1 in the first round. He then went past Ronav Motiani 15-7 before prevailing in an all-Indian quarter-final against fifth-seed Aditya Ruhela 10-11, 11-9, 11-5. In the semis, Armaan stormed past Willy Chung 11-4, 11-1.
Later in the evening, Bhatia teamed up with Netherlands’ Roos van Reek to win the mixed pro doubles final, beating the Australian pair of George Wall and Danni Elle Townsend.
Bhatia and van Reek started strongly and maintained a handy lead throughout the first game with the Indian banking on his superior net game and fast hands. Turning up shortly after taking the women’s doubles title with Kaitlynn Hart, Van Reek did not show any fatigue as the Indian-Dutch duo took the first game 11-5.
In the second game, both pairs traded points at the start. After a brief advantage for Bhatia and van Reek, Wall and Townsend fought back to level the scores at 5-5. The Aussies didn’t let the momentum slip and took the game 11-10 to force the third.
The decider was a veritable cakewalk for Bhatia and van Reek as their opponents seemed to have run out of steam on a humid evening. The Indo-Dutch pair won 11-5, 10-11, 11-1.
In the last final of the evening, Bhatia teamed up with Harsh Mehta to thrash USA’s Roman Estareja and Aussie Mitchell Hargreaves in the pro men’s doubles final 11-3, 11-2.
The Indians went on an early offensive and put the American-Australian pair under tremendous pressure. A brilliant crosscourt backhand from Armaan saw the Indians bag the first point. The Indians then seized the momentum and routinely found the gaps as Estareja and Hargreaves proved no match for them.
Earlier, Bhatia and Harsh breezed through the opening two rounds, scoring a 15-5 win against India’s Harsh Shah and Dhiren Patel followed by another 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 reach the final.
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 youngster hopes to build on this success at home.
“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.”
