Orleans Masters: India's Krishna Prasad Garaga-Vishnu Vardhan Panjala Go Down Fighting In Men's Doubles Final

India's Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala went down fighting in the Orleans Masters men's doubles final, losing to England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-19, 14-21, 19-21 in a thrilling encounter on Sunday. The Indian pair started the opening game confidently and took the lead initially, but the English duo came back strongly to reduce the deficit, taking the game deep. The Indian shuttlers, however, held their nerves to clinch the opening game 21-19.

With title on the line, the English players turned the table in the second game to open up a healthy lead and maintained it throughout, eventually winning the game 21-14, with relative ease.

Unlike the first two games, it was a neck-to-neck contest in the final game, with both teams fighting tooth and nail, not giving away easy points.

The match went right down to the wire and the English pair emerged triumphant, clinching the decider 21-19 to win men's doubles title.

Krishna and Vishnu had paired for the first time in this event and would be pleased with the results they managed. Krishna, 21, is India's no. 1 ranked doubles player and used to pair up with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in his junior days.

After Satwik and Chirag Shetty were paired together, Krishna started playing with Dhruv Kapila since November, 2016. The duo continued for two and a half years before separating in 2019.

The 20-year-old Vishnu also played with a few other Indian doubles players in his junior days. He and Ishaan Bhatnagar had reached the finals at the 2019 Bulgarian Junior international.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were the first Indian pair to win a super 100 event at Hyderabad in 2018. The duo also went on to win Thailand Open 500 and reaching the finals of French Open 750 event.

Krishna had earlier paired with Shlok Ramchandran, while for the 20-year-old Vishnu, it's his first international tournament at the senior level.

On Saturday, Saina Nehwal bowed out in straight games in the women's singles semifinals to end India's singles challenge at the tournament. Saina lost 17-21, 17-21 to Denmark's Line Christophersen in her semifinal clash.

(With PTI inputs)