Rohan Bopanna advances to European Open quarter-finals
Bopanna and partner Middelkoop recorded a straight-sets win in their Round of 16 match at Antwerp.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Middelkoop began their doubles campaign with a win at the ATP 250 European Open at Antwerp, Belgium on Wednesday.
Bopanna-Middelkoop beat the fourth-seeded English pair of Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski 6-4, 6-4 in the Round of 16.
Jamie Murray is a former Australian Open and US Open champion and is the elder brother of double Olympic champion Andy Murray.
Both pairs broke each other in the opening two games but the contest settled down after that. Bopanna-Middelkoop looked more assured on their serve, holding them with ease while putting pressure on Murray-Skupski’s serves.
The pressure paid off in the ninth game as the Indo-Dutch pair broke their opponents and served out the next game to take the opening set 6-4.
The second set proved to be much more straightforward. Both teams looked solid with their service games but Murray-Skupski had to save two break points on serve in the fifth game.
However, Bopanna-Middelkoop did not let the next chance slip. The Indo-Dutch pair broke the Englishmen’s serve in the seventh game and it was the only opening they needed to wrap up the second set and win the match.
Bopanna-Middelkoop will now face Australian pair Alex de Minaur and Matt Reid in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 European Open.
Other Indian tennis players, however, were less fortunate on the day.
In the Bett1hulks Championships, the doubles pair of Divij Sharan and USA’s Tennys Sandgren went down 6-4, 6-2 to Austria’s Oliver Marach and Croatia’s Mate Pavic in the round of 16 clash.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, meanwhile, lost 6-2, 6-2 in his second-round clash against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in the Ismaning Challenger.