Incheon: Sania Mirza and Saketh Myneni combined well to clinch gold medal in the mixed doubles event as India's tennis campaign at the Asian Games concluded with a rich haul of five medals at the Asian Games, on Monday.
The second seeds overwhelmed the top-seeded Chinese Taipei pair of Hao Ching Chan and Hsien Yin Peng 6-4 6-3 in the summit clash in only 69 minutes.
Myneni though could not make it two out of two as he lost the men's doubles final with Sanam Singh to settle for a silver. The Indians lost the keenly-contested final 5-7 6-7(2) to Korea's Yongkyu Lim and Hyeon Chung earlier in the day.
The defeat for the fifth seeded Indian men meant that Sanam could not win a second consecutive gold at the Asian Games, having won gold with Somdev devvarman at the Guangzhou Games in 2010.
India had won five medals at the 2010 Games too but with two golds. It was a commendable show by the young Indian players, who performed in the absence of top players.
Star players - Leander Paes, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna -- had to pull out of the Asian Games to salvage their season on the professional circuit.
Yuki Bhambri won twin bronze medals in the men's singles and double with Divij Sharan while Sania and Prarthana Thombare won bronze in the women's doubles event.
Interestingly, Sania, now has eight Asian Games medals to her credit.
Myneni, playing Asian Games for the first time, was not only terrific with his big service game he was very agile at net, firing a lot of volleys for winners. The Indian pair targetted Hao and many a times the Taipei girl took the furious shot hit by Myneni on her body.
The Indians broke Hao in the seventh game to take a mini lead in the first set, in which they did not face a single breakpoint.
After that break, the set went on serve and got closed when Peng hit a backhand wide on Myneni's serve.
Saketh and Sania made a perfect start in the second set by breaking Peng in the first game but it was neutralised when Sania dropped her serve in the fourth game.
After being down 0-40, Sania and Saketh saved two breakpoints but hit a backhand out to lose serve.
However, they got the break back and again it was Hao who was targetted. Sania's backhand winner and unforced error from the Taipei girl handed the Indians two chances and the second seeds latched on to the second one.
Sania cae up with a splendid service game in the next and now the Taipei players were under pressure, serving to stay in the match.
Peng made unforced errors to be down by two match points.
he saved the first with an ace but on deuce Hao sent one forehand to net, giving the Indians their first gold in the sport in this edition.
In the men's doubles final, the Koreans, cheered by the home fans, were precise in shot-making and won points with some intelligent tennis against the fighting Indians.
The Koreans stood out with their shot selection as some of the drop volleys won them crucial points.
The Indians kept fighting hard after losing the first set and stretched the second to a tie-breaker. However they were outplayed in the deciding tie break as they trailed 1-4.
The Koreans were soon up 6-2 to earn four match points and converted the first when Sanam hit a forehand long on Lim's serve.
India now have won four medals in tennis, including three bronze - men's singles, women's doubles and men's doubles.
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