Paris 2024 Olympian N Sriram Balaji and Anirudh Chandrasekar won the doubles title at the Cancun Country Open 2026 ATP Challenger tennis tournament in Mexico on Sunday.
The Indian tennis players defeated Mexico’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela and Belarus’ Ivan Liutarevich 6-3, 7(7)-6(4) in the final to claim their first title as a pair.
The victory marked Balaji’s 19th ATP Challenger doubles title and fifth of the 2026 season. For Chandrasekar, it was his 11th career Challenger doubles crown and second of the year.
The Cancun Country Open was an ATP Challenger 125 tournament played on outdoor hard courts.
There was little to separate the two pairs early in the final before Balaji and Chandrasekar secured the only break of the opening set in the eighth game. The Indians consolidated the advantage to take the first set 6-3.
Neither pair conceded serve in the second set, which went to a tie-break. Balaji and Chandrasekar prevailed 7-4 to seal the title.
The Indian duo had needed a comeback in each of their first three matches in Cancun.
Balaji and Chandrasekar began their campaign by rallying to beat the Republic of Korea’s Ji Sung Nam and Finland’s Patrik Niklas-Salminen 3-6, 6-4, 10-4 in the opening round.
They came from behind again in the quarter-finals, edging fourth-seeded British pair David Stevenson and Marcus Willis 4-6, 7-5, 12-10.
Another comeback followed in the semi-finals. Balaji and Chandrasekar overturned a one-set deficit to beat Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez and Chinese Taipei’s Ray Ho 3-6, 6-3, 10-3 and book their place in the final.
For Balaji, the Cancun triumph added to an impressive season on the ATP Challenger circuit. His previous four titles in 2026 all came alongside Austria’s Neil Oberleitner at Nonthaburi, Manama, Pau and Oeiras.
Chandrasekar’s previous title came at the Busan Open 2026 Challenger 125 in April alongside Japan’s Takeru Yuzuki.
Balaji represented India with Rohan Bopanna in the men’s doubles at the Paris 2024 Olympics and reached his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros earlier this year.
The 36-year-old Balaji is also part of the Indian team for the Davis Cup 2026 Qualifiers second-round tie against the Republic of Korea in Seoul on September 18 and 19. Chandrasekar is not part of the Davis Cup squad.
Both Balaji and Chandrasekar, however, have been selected in India’s men’s doubles contingent for the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
