In a doubles showdown at the Newport Infosys Hall of Fame Open, Niki Poonacha and Rithvik Bollipalli paired up against the formidable duo of Luke Saville and Aleksandar Vukic. Saville and Vukic dominated the first set breaking the Indian pair in the 2nd and 6th game of the set. The service plagued the Indians for the most part of the first set and with 4 double faults they were not able to recover and lost the first set 1-6 in 21 minutes.   

Niki and Rithvik rallied back in the second set saving a break point in the very first game and went on to hold the game.  They held on their serves including winning game # 7 without conceding a point. However Saville / Vukic took a crucial break in the 9th game to go up 5-4. After this break the Australian pair finished up the last game in little over 2 minutes and won the match 6-1 6-4  

MD R1: Rithvik Coudary Bollipalli / Niki Kalyanda Poonacha (India, #8) – Luke Saville / Aleksandar Vukic (Australia, uns.) 1-6 4-6

Match report by Himanshu Bhagat. More pictures can be found on flyctory.com.