French Open 2024 tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden jump to third round in men’s doubles

The Australian Open champs defeated Brazil’s Zormann and Luz in the opening round and received a bye in the second to march forward in the Grand Slam.

2 minBy Anjishnu Roy
Rohan Bopanna of India

(Getty Images)

Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden progressed to the third round of the French Open 2024 men’s doubles event at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday.

Bopanna and Ebden, who had their first-round match postponed several times due to rain earlier this week, beat Marcelo Zormann and Orlando Luz of Brazil 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in a gruelling match that lasted two hours and 42 minutes.

The Indo-Australian tennis pair was to face Sebastian Baez of Argentina and Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil in the second round but their opponents withdrew on Sunday.

As a result, Bopanna-Ebden will face the Indo-Mexican pair of N Sriram Balaji and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela Martinez in the third round of the Grand Slam.

On Sunday, Bopanna and Ebden, seeded second, raced to a 4-1 lead in the first set before the Brazilian duo won four games on the trot to go ahead 5-4.

However, Bopanna and Ebden, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, mounted a comeback to win three consecutive games to take the set 7-5.

The second set began on an even note as both sides were tied at 3-3. Marcelo-Orlando grew into the contest and took a 5-3 lead before closing out the set 6-4 and forcing a decider.

While the third set also saw both the pairs tied at 2-2, Bopanna-Ebden were more clinical and went on to win 6-4 and secure their entry to the next round.

In the mixed doubles category, however, Rohan Bopanna and Veronika Kudermetova lost to Andrea Vavassori and Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.

Earlier at the French Open, Yuki Bhambri and his French partner Albano Olivetti fell short in the men’s doubles opening round. Sumit Nagal, India’s top-ranked men’s singles tennis player at world No. 95, lost to Karen Khachanov in the first round.

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