Francis Alwin and Nandagopal Kidambi emerged victorious in an all-Indian final in the men’s doubles at the Iran International Challenge on Thursday, beating fourth seeds Saurabh Sharma and Kona Tarun.
The unseeded Nandagopal and Francis won the 11-point best-of-five match 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9 in 38 minutes. This is their first title win together after pairing up late last year just prior to the senior national championship in November.
They had reached the final of the India International Series in November but lost to Arun George and Sanyam Shukla in straight games. In the India Open earlier this month, they were beaten in the second round by fourth seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen after coming through the qualifiers.
Incidentally, Francis used to play with Tarun till September last year and the two had lost to Nandagopal and his previous partner Rohan Kapoor in the final of the Kharkiv International. Nandagopal had also won the mixed doubles title in that tournament with Mahima Aggarwal. Francis had won two titles – in Uganda and Peru – with Tarun last year.