Rohan Bopanna Enters Second Round of Men’s Doubles at Aus Open
The 36-year-old Indian and Pablo Cuevas secured a 6-4, 7-6 win over their Brazilian/Argentine opponent pair.
Starting the Indian players’ journey at the tournament with a win, Rohan Bopanna along with his men’s doubles partner Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay cruised through to the second round of the Australian Open 2017.
The 36-year-old Indian and Cuevas secured a 6-4, 7-6(7-4) win over the Brazilian/Argentine pair of Thomaz Bellucci/Máximo González in the first round in Melbourne on Wednesday.
India has four men’s doubles players competing at the Australian Open this year. The other three Indians – Leander Paes, playing with Brazilian Andre Sa and the in-form all-Indian doubles pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja – will take take the court later on Wednesday. Current World No. 2 in women’s doubles and defending champion Sania Mirza will also play her first round match alongside partner Barbora Strycova on Wednesday.
Bopanna and Cuevas beat their opponents in an hour and 24 minutes. The Indo-Uruguay combine dominated the match, breaking their opponents’ serve once in each set. However, Belluci-Gonzalez fought back in the second set to take it to a tie-breaker, which was sealed by Bopanna and Cuevas.
They will next face the winner of the match between Robin Haase/Florian Mayer and Alex Bolt/Bradley Mousley.
Rohan Bopanna has had a winning start to the year after wining the Chennai Open men’s doubles title earlier this month. Former World No. 3 doubles player Bopanna has reached the third round of the Australian Open on four separate occasions, most recently in 2014, but has fared better at Melbourne in the mixed doubles.
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