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Seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna and Ivan Dodig went down fighting to the fifth seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the final of the Coupe Rogers in Montreal, Canada on Sunday. The Indo-Croatian pair forced a deciding tie-break after dropping the first set but could not continue their momentum, ending up with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-10 loss in 1 hour 22 minutes.
Bopanna and Dodig thundered 7 aces and converted one out of their three break point opportunities in this match.
It was the Indian who was on song throughout the match while Dodig struggled with his groundstrokes. Even though they did manage to make amends for their missed chances, they fell short in the end.
The two teams stayed on serve till 3-3 in the first set. The first sign of nerves from Dodig came in the seventh game where he double faulted and promptly handed over the advantage to the Frenchmen, who secured the only break of the set.
In the second set, the seventh seeds were the first ones to earn a break point when the Indian found a blistering backhand in the fourth game.
But they squandered it after Dodig missed yet another return.
The Indo-Croatian duo, was, however, quick to push aside that setback. They got their very next opportunity in the eighth game where Herbert looked slightly off on serve. Forcing the French to send the ball long, they grabbed the vital break to inch ahead to 5-3 before successfully serving out the set after saving a break point.
But they lost the momentum soon after as the Frenchmen raised their level. The initial stages of the match tie-break were completely one-way traffic and the seventh seeds were on the board only at 1-4.
The two-time Grand Slam champions continued their relentless attack to surge to 9-3 soon with six match points in hand.
Even though Bopanna and Dodig saved three of them, they ultimately conceded defeat after Dodig sent a forehand flying out of the court on the Herbert serve.
Bopanna can be happy with the fact that it is a very promising performance ahead of the US Open, beginning on August 28.
His next tournament is the Cincinnati Masters in Ohio next week, where he is once again paired with Dodig.
