Guangzhou: India's Somdev Devvarman added a second gold medal in tennis in as many days while Peng Shuai further asserted China's domination in the women's at the 16th Asian Games here Tuesday.
Seeded second here, Devvarman had teamed up with Sanam Krishnan Singh to pick up his first Asian Games gold in the men's doubles late on Monday.
But yesterday, Devvarman was in his own zone knocking off the top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 in under one and a half hours on centre court of the Aoti Tennis Centre.
His win yesterday made Devvarman the first Indian to win a gold in the men's singles tennis of the Asian Games after Leander Paes (Hiroshima 1994), Mahesh Bhupathi (Bangkok 1998) and Prahlad Srinath (Bangkok 1998) had all won bronze medals in men's singles for India.
Home favourite
"This has been an amazing experience for me and the feeling will sink in over the next day or two," said the world No 106 after accepting the medal from Anil Khanna, President, Asian Tennis Federation.
Meanwhile, home favourite Peng Shuai added a second Asian Games gold medal to her team gold she won on November 16 with a 7-5, 6-2 win against third seed Akgul Amanmuradova in the women's singles final later in the evening.
Going into this final, Peng had held a 1-0 lead after defeating Amanmuradova 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 on clay at the 2009 Family Circle Cup in Charleston, US.
Playing before a packed centre court here, the Indian burst into tears and then fell flat on his back even as coach Nandan Bal and the coaching staff went into wild celebrations on the side. Devvarman then ran to his coach Scott McCain and hugged him and burst into tears in his arms.
