Anirudh Chandrasekar-Vijay Sundar Prashanth upset eighth seeds to advance to second round

India’s Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth pulled off a huge upset against American eighth seeds Evan King and Christian Harrison in the first round of the men’s doubles event of the US Open 2025 tennis tournament on Friday.

Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth fought back from a set down to beat the semi-finalists from this year’s French Open 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The Indian duo dropped the first set after losing their serve in the eighth game but broke the Americans in the sixth game of the second to stage a comeback and force a decider.

Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth then carried their momentum into the third set by breaking Evan King and Christian Harrison in the opening game and holding serve for the rest of the match to stun the home favourites.

The Indian pair, who entered the draw as last-minute alternates, will take on Brazil’s Fernando Romboli and Australia’s John-Patrick Smith in the second round.

However, Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and N. Sriram Balaji, India’s other duo in action in the men’s doubles draw, failed to make it past their opening round match.

Squaring off against the Dutch-American duo of Bart Stevens and Vasil Kirkov, the Indian tennis players began positively by winning the opening set.

They could have won the contest in the second set but squandered three match points before losing the tie-break.

In the third set, Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and N. Sriram Balaji lost serve in the opening game and failed to recover as they went down 3-6, 7(10)-6(8), 6-4 and endured an early exit from the final Grand Slam of the year.

India have three more representatives in the men’s doubles draw at the US Open. Veteran Rohan Bopanna is pairing up with Monaco’s Romain Arneodo, while Yuki Bhambri has teamed up with New Zealand’s Michael Venus and are seeded 14th.

Arjun Kadhe and his partner Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador are also a part of the draw. All three Indians will be in action on Saturday in their respective first round matches.

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