Bhubaneswar: Local boy Kabir Hans delighted the home crowd at the Kalinga Stadium Tennis Centre by advancing to the men’s doubles final in the M25 Bhubaneswar ITF World Tennis Tour 2024 meet.
Kabir and his partner Rishab Agarwal defeated the third-seeded duo of Siddhant Banthia and Vishnu Vardhan 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in the semifinal here on Friday.
Standing between Kabir-Rishab and the title are top seeds Egor Agafonov and Bogdan Bobrov, who were given a scare in their semifinal. Up against another Indian pair Ishaque Eqbal and Faisal Qamar, Agafonov and Bobrov had to dig deep in squeezing out a thrilling 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 10-8 victory.
The doubles final will take place at 3 pm on Saturday.
In men’s singles, India’s Aryan Shah will take on top-seeded Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic, while Bobrov comes up against American Nick Chappell in the semifinals.