From correspondents in Delhi, India, 09:30 PM IST

India's doubles combination of Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave beat Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata of Japan to win the New Zealand Open Grand Prix title in Auckland Saturday.

The top seeded Indian pair faced stiff competition from fourth seeded Japanese but prevailed 21-16, 15-21, 21-13 in an almost hour-long duel.

Rupesh and Sanave had earlier reached the final of the Australian Open Grand Prix last week in Melbourne.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)