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Yesterday, they gave a billion Indians something to cheer about. Today, they’ve broken a billion Indian hearts. Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have crashed out of the Olympics, losing 6-3, 6-4 to the French pair of Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau. After all their shenanigans over the past fortnight, Bhupathi-Bopanna were handed a rather tame ending to their campaign, and they made a very quiet exit indeed.
The Indian duo held their serve in the first game to tie the first set at 1-1, but things got progressively worse after that. They got broken while serving at 1-2, and couldn’t make much of an impression on the Frenchmen’s serve thereafter. Serving at 2-5, they were in another spot of bother, but managed to hold their nerve and force Gasquet-Benneteau to serve for the set. But their opponents had no hiccups doing that, calmly serving their way to a 6-3 first set win.
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The second set started on a much brighter note for Bhupathi-Bopanna, as they broke serve at the start and then consolidated to take a 3-0 lead. They looked set to take the match to a decider when disaster struck, and the Frenchmen broke back to get to 2-3. Things went with serve after that until 4-4, when the Indians’ nerves betrayed them, and they gifted their opponents the decisive break. Gasquet-Benneteau didn’t need to be asked twice, and they remained rock solid, sealing a comprehensive win.
The Indians were the higher-ranked pair in this matchup, and had plenty of doubles experience compared to their opponents, who mostly ply on the singles circuit. But their doubles skills were no match for the French flair on the opposite side of the net. Gasquet and Benneteau made particularly good use of angles and touch to smother the Indians’ groundstrokes; it is no coincidence that both Gasquet and Benneteau have been ranked in the top 20 in the world in singles.
For Bhupathi-Bopanna, this is a crushing blow, as they had entered the tournament with fairly reasonable hopes of going far. All of India’s hopes will now rest on Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan, who will play the very next match on the same court.
