Indian ace Rohan Bopanna and his partner Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada, seeded 7th at the French Open, today took a straight sets win over former doubles World No. 1 Sania Mirza and her partner Ivan Dodig; Mirza and Croatian ace Dodig, seeded second at Roland Garros, went down in a 52 minute encounter that saw the Indo-Canadian pair thoroughly outplay their rivals.
Bopanna and Dabrowski beat Mirza and Dodig 6-3, 6-4, hitting six aces en route to the sub one-hour win. The Indo-Canadian pair were very successful on their first serves, winning 79% of their points on first serve.
They also took their rivals to break point on seven occasions through the match, and were successful three times – with Mirza and Dodig managing to break back only once.
Mirza’s winner to unforced errors ratio stood at 1:1 – Bopanna’s a strong 6:1 in comparison.
This is Bopanna’s best ever performance in the mixed doubles at a Grand Slam; he has exited at the quarter-final stage at every single slam in that discipline, including the Australian Open this year. Dabrowski was already his partner by this point.
Although this is the 37-year-old player’s highest mixed doubles finish so far, Bopanna is a former Grand Slam finalist in the men’s doubles. Paired with Pakistani ace Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi – the pair affectionately known as the Indo-Pak express, Bopanna finished runner-up at the US Open in 2010, going down to the most successful doubles pair in tennis history, Bob and Mike Bryan, in two sets – each of which went to a tiebreak.
The Indian player has been enjoying an immensely successful clay-court season, and along with Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, his regular doubles partner for this season, won top honours at the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters. Bopanna has previously been successful on both grass and hard courts, with his clay court strength returning for the 2017 season.
Bopanna and Dabrowski will next play the winner of the match between Andreja Klepac / Dominic Inglot and Andrea Hlavackova/Edouard Roger-Vasselin, the latter pair seeded third behind Mirza and Dodig.
