New Delhi, June 25: Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee did what no other doubles pair has done before. On Sunday night, the two defeated the second-seeded Japanese Miyuu Kihara and Miwa Harimoto in the women’s doubles final of the WTT Contender Tunis 2023 to win gold.

The Indian duo won 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 5-11, 13-11) in a challenging final for the first title this year in a Contender event. What is significant is the World No. 36 pair’s remarkable overall consistency, especially in the final against the two rising Japanese teenagers, ranked among the top-25 in the world in singles.

After taking a comfortable 2-0 lead, the Indians dropped the third game and regrouped themselves in the next to outsmart the Japanese on extended points to claim the title.

A day earlier, the Indians advanced to the final after beating the Korean duo of Shin Yubin and Jeon Jihi 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9), ranked No. 4 in the world, in a hard-fought last-four clash, and before that, they accounted Chen Szn-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua 3-2 from Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.