Purav Raja and Antonio Sancic clinched the Ismaning Challenger doubles title on Sunday, defeating second seeds Rameez Junaid and David Pel.

The top seeds lost the first set 5-7 but they recovered to win the next two 6-4, [10-5].

The win marks Purav’s 15th Challenger title in doubles and second in 2018.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran saved five match points but went down 6-7 [4-7], 6-4, 3-6 to Italian Thomas Fabbiano in the final of the Ningbo Challenger

The match, which lasted two hours and 54 minutes saw the Italian Fabbiano take a marathon first set in a tie-break before the Indian hit back in the second, forcing a decider, in which Prajnesh lost serve in the fourth game.

The 28-year-old Asian Games bronze medallist was wasteful in the first set, holding all his service games but unable to convert any of his eight break points earned against Fabbiano. In the fourth game, Gunneswaran had the chance to break Fabbiano thrice before the latter held serve in a 14-point game.

In the tie-break, the Chennai-born Prajnesh earned a mini-break on the third point before losing his advantage the very next point. He lost a crucial duel on the eighth point to go down 3-5 before Fabbiano wrapped up the tie-break 7-4 on his own serve.

The second set saw both men holding serve for the first six games before the Italian was broken as Prajnesh went up 4-3. He held his next two service games to close out the set 6-4.

In the decider, Prajnesh lost his second service game as Fabbiano led 3-1. With the Italian serving for the match at 5-3, the Indian led 40-15 and 40-30 and had another break point, while his opponent had five match points. On the sixth, the Italian clinched a marathon 20-point game to win the Ningbo Challenger.

Prajnesh, who was ranked 170 coming into this tournament, is expected to climb up the rankings, surpassing his highest ever of 152 due to his run to the final.