Rohan Bopanna-Franko Skugor sail into French Open 2021 third round
The Indo-Canadian doubles pair won their second round tennis match in straight sets at Paris.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Franko Skugor eased into the men’s doubles third round of the French Open 2021 on Thursday after beating US pair Nicholas Monroe and Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 7-5.
Rohan Bopanna is the only Indian still in contention in this year’s Roland Garros.
Divij Sharan and Ankita Raina bowed out of the Grand Slam competition following their first-round losses in men’s and women’s doubles respectively. Men’s singles player Sumit Nagal, meanwhile, failed to get past the qualifiers.
Rohan Bopanna and Franko Skugor, who beat the German-Georgian duo Andre Begemann and Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening round, drew first blood, breaking the American team’s service in the third game of the first set to take a 2-1 lead.
The Indo-Canadian duo then proceeded to build on their early lead to wrap up the set 6-4.
Both Rohan Bopanna and Franko Skugor were on the money with their first service game in the first set, winning 75 per cent successful first serves and 67 per cent of their second serves.
The Indo-Croatian duo came close to replicating their third game success in the second set as well, but Nicholas Monroe and Frances Tiafoe managed to save a break point and hold their serve.
Monroe and Tiafoe, who beat Brazil’s Marcelo Melo and Poland's Lukasz Kubot in the first round, then came back swinging in the fourth game and broke Bopanna-Skugor for the first time in the match to seize a 3-1 advantage in the second set.
Trailing 4-2, Bopanna and Sugor broke the Americans back in the seventh game to get right back into the set.
The decisive 11th game went the distance. The Americans saved two break points but the Bopanna-Sugor eventually persevered to take a 6-5 lead.
Serving for the match, the Indo-Canadian duo comfortably held their serve in the next game to wrap up the second set 7-5, and with it the match.
In the third round, Bopanna and Skugor will face the winner of the match between Australian duo Alex de Minaur and Matt Reid and the team of El Salvador’s Marcelo Arévalo and Netherlands’ Matwé Middelkoop.
Minaur and Reid were responsible for knocking out Divij Sharan and his Argentine partner Federico Delbonis in the first round.