Uzbekistan's Istomin wins tennis gold at Asiad

Uzbek tennis player Denis Istomin rallied to beat Chinese Wu Yibing 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(2) to win the men's singles gold at the 18th Asian Games here on Saturday.

It took Istomin two hours and 17 minutes to wrap up the victory after dropping the opening set at 6-2, reports Xinhua news agency.

After the opening set, Istomin hit top gear and used his powerful ground strokes to put more pressure on the Chinese hopeful.

Breaking Wu twice in the second set, Istomin took it at 6-2 to even the scoreline at 1-1 overall.

In the deciding third set, the 18-year-old Wu dropped serve first but remained calm to break back to tie the score at 4-4. After holding serve firmly in the next four games, the two players headed to the tie-break, where Istomin emerged the winner at 7-2.

Istomin registered 36 unforced errors compared to 29 from Wu and hit 47 winners to just 29 from the Chinese teenager.

--IANS

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