Hyderabad Strikers to meet Mumbai Leon Army in TPL final

Mumbai: Hyderabad Strikers and Mumbai Leon Army entered the final of the Tennis Premier league, scoring narrow, identical 42-38 victories over Chennai Stallions and defending champions Pune Jaguars, respectively, in the semi-finals here on Saturday. Interestingly, both the matches were tied 30-30 after three rubbers and it was the men's doubles that decided both outcomes. Karman Kaur gave the Strikers a positive start, edging past Samantha Sharan 11-9.

With a final berth at stake, both players made shaky starts to the game, but it was Karman's bigger serve that held her in good stead. The lead changed hands a couple of times before Karman took control and closed out the match. Siddharth, unbeaten in the tournament, looked on course to give the Stallions the advantage when he raced to a 8-4 lead against Arjun Kadhe.

However, a couple of loose shots from Rawat gave Kadhe a chance to narrow the lead and he then came up with some sharp net play when trailing 8-10 to level the scores at 10-10.