Pune Marathas beat Hyderabad Aces to enter CTL final

Pune Marathas entered the final of the Champions Tennis League (CTL), beating Hyderabad Aces 25-24 in a tense South Zone contest here Monday.

Pune will face Delhi Dreams in the title clash Wednesday in Delhi.

Mark Philippoussis gave Hyderabad a three-game lead, beating Pat Cash 6-3 in the legends singles.

Pune quickly neutralised that lead as Agnieszka Radwanska and Marcos Baghdatis won the mixed doubles 6-3 against Martina Hingis and Mikhail Youzhny.

Hingis then put Hyderabad back infront, securing a narrow 6-4 win over Radwanska in closely-fought women's singles match to give Hyderabad Aces a 15-13 lead, with two matches to go.

Pune fought back again, winning the men's doubles contest 6-3 through Baghdatis and Saketh Myneni, to have their noses ahead 19-18 going into the final match of the tie, the men's singles.

Baghdatis take an early 3-0 lead and then was up 5-1 but Youzhny fought back remarkably to square it 5-5 and force a tie-breaker. The momentum swung towards Youzhny who breezed past Baghdatis 5-0 in the nine-point tie breaker to win the match 6-5 and level the tie 24-24.

According to the tournament rules, another nine-point tie-breaker had to be played to break the deadlock and Baghdatis used all his experience to emerge on top in the deciding tie-break and secure victory for Pune.