Rohan Bopanna keeps Indian hopes alive at US Open with doubles win
Rohan Bopanna and his partner Denis Shapovalov won their first-round match to set up a clash with the sixth-seeded German team of Andreas Miles and Kevin Krawietz.
Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov cruised into the second round of the US Open doubles event after a 6-2, 6-4 win over the all-US team of Noah Rubin and Ernesto Escobedo at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York on Saturday.
Rohan Bopanna and David Shapovalov are set to play sixth seeds Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz - both from Germany - in the next round.
Bopanna is the only Indian player still remaining in this year’s US Open tennis competition after Sumit Nagal exited from the men's singles event after a second-round loss to World No. 3 Dominic Thiem and Divij Sharan and his partner failed to progress beyond the doubles first round.
It was the Americans who seemed stronger towards the start, keeping Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov on their toes. Escobedo-Rubin almost broke their opponents’ serve in the third game of the first set, but the Indo-Canadian duo dug deep to save the game.
With the first set finely balanced at 3-2, Bopanna-Shapovalov broke the US team in the sixth game to finally take the initiative.
The tide turned from there on as Bopanna and his partner held serve in the next game and wrapped up the set after breaking Rubin and Escobedo again in the eighth to win 6-2.
Both teams went toe to toe in the second set holding their serves until the fifth game before bad weather forced the match to be suspended with Bopanna-Shapovalov leading the set 3-2.
Tricky restart doesn’t faze Bopanna-Shapovalov
With Shapovalov in third round singles action as well, the match resumed early Saturday morning in India barely hours after the Canadian came from 2-1 behind to beat Taylor Fritz in five sets to progress to the fourth round in singles.
Shapovalov’s marathon match, however, barely slowed down the Indo-Canadian duo once their doubles match resumed on Court 5.
Bopanna-Shapovalov found that crucial break in the eighth game of the second set to make it 5-3 but Noah and Escobedo hit right back, breaking their opponents in the ninth.
Bopanna and Shapovalov, however, wrapped up the match in the very next game, breaking the American team again to win it 6-2, 6-4.