Indian pair Somdev Kishore Devvarman and Sanam Krishan Singh survived a nail-biting decisive set over Chinese opponents to claim the men's doubles tennis gold medal at the ongoing Asian Games on Monday.

The Indian duo thrashed China's emerging stars Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (8) in a tight match in one hour and 45 minutes.

The victory featured six aces from the winners and five breaks of serve against their Chinese opponents.

The Indian pair got over a shaky start to the final, when they were broken serve in the second game of the first set by the Chinese duo, who were top eight of China Open doubles.

Later on, they fought back and levelled at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, and finally beat the Chinese 6-3 in the first set.

The second set was extended to tiebreak as the two pairs traced each other closely and tied in every point till 6-all. The Chinese duo endured a 6-4 tiebreak to level for an overall 1-1 at the end of the second set.

The Indian pair shined in the super tiebreak of the decisive set, as Singh hit consecutive forehand passes between the Chinese players to give India a 4-1 lead, and knocked out opponents 10-8 to claim the final victory.

"Sanam was fabulous tonight. Somdev was great and he got us here with fantastic matches, but I've never seen Sanam play like this," said coach Nandan Bal of the Indian team.

"Right from the start, they refused to believe they were playing to a crowd of 5,500 people. Instead, they only believed they were playing two people, and kept their heads down and showed their best," he added.

Singh, an amateur who plays college tennis at the University of Virginia in the United States, said they held until the last minute and never let the crowd take over. He also praised the performance of their Chinese rivals, who scored tough challenges for them.

"We dominated the first set, but the second one was tight," said Singh. "In the super tiebreaker, we started well but they caught up. Then at 9-8, credit to Somdev for playing a clutch point. Well done," he cheered.

He told reporters he still had six months left at college and will then decide whether to play regular tournaments

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