Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea’s Mutua Madrid Open title defense came to a grinding halt as they were stopped by the thirds seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 4-6, 6(5)-7 in the final on Sunday.
For the Indo-Romanian duo, who had been struggling of late, this was just their second final of the season after having made it to the Sydney summit clash back in January.
First set
The third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau were the first to draw blood as they secured an early break. Bopanna and Mergea earned a break back point in the fourth game but could not capitalize on it as their Dutch-Romanian opponents surged ahead.
For Tecau, his compatriot Mergea on the opposite side of the net, is someone he is very familiar with. They had paired up to win the Bucharest Open together at home just a couple of weeks back.
He knew when to put pressure on the sixth seeds and with some brilliant serves, he and Rojer held on to grab the first set 6-4.
Second set
The defending champions had a more positive start in the second set as they kept on holding their serves and began attacking the Dutch-Romanian pair’s serves a lot more. But none of the teams managed to break each other and the set eventually headed to the tie-break.
The two teams exchanged mini-breaks for 5-5 after which Rojer and Tecau converted their very first match point for the win in 1 hour 11 minutes.
Earlier on Saturday, the women’s doubles top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis too had faltered in the final, losing to the fifth seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, 4-6, 4-6.
