The Mutua Madrid Open finals did not go the way of the Indian players but both Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna did not let the disappointment affect their performances at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Both of them rebounded from the setbacks to make a winning start in their respective categories at the Foro Italico on Wednesday.
In women’s doubles, the top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, who got a bye in Round 1, registered a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Taipei-Georgian duo of Su-Wei Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova to enter the quarter-finals. The Indo-Swiss pair put in 65% of first serves and broke their opponents five times for the win in 1 hour 1 min.
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The top-ranked combine reached the finals of their last two clay tournaments in Stuttgart and Madrid but lost each time to the formidable French team of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. Hingis and Mirza, who won the Wimbledon, US Open and the Australian Open titles, need just the French Open crown to complete the much-coveted Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam.
Tough win for Bopanna-Mergea
In men’s doubles second round action, sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea bounced back with a tough 6(5)-7, 6-4, 10-8 triumph over the French-Portuguese team of Benoit Paire and Joao Sousa. The Indo-Romanian duo was broken twice while they broke their opponents’ serves thrice in this nail-biting 1 hour 29 minute contest.
