India's male and female players put in a number of strong performances across the board at the doubles today, but with mixed results.
Indian ace Rohan Bopanna has advanced to the second round of the ATP250 Chengdu tournament, the inaugural tournament in the Chinese city.
Doubles player Prarthana Thombare, partnered by Japan’s Nao Hibino, lost in her first round match at the WTA Tashkent tournament, where the pair were in the main draw.
Despite their loss, the pair had put in a spirited performance, and even looked to be in a winning position early on in the match. Thombare and Hibino won the first set 6-4, and had built up early in that set. Drawing first blood, they broke the Uzbek-Ukrainian combine of Polina Merenkova and Dayana Yastremska early on to take a 2-1 lead, building up on it to go 5-1 before their rivals managed a resurgence to break back, eventually losing 4-6 to the Indo-Japanese combine.
Thombare and Hibino lost early on in the second set, broken in their first game. Unfortunately for the pair, that would be a sign of things to come in that set – which they lost 6-3 after a convincing performance from their rivals.
Taken to a deciding tiebreak, Thombare and Hibino put up a spirited battle, going up a mini-break early on. Unfortunately, they were broken back soon after, but ended in a close battle as the Uzbek-Ukrainian pair won the tiebreak and the match, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8
Bopanna fires on
One of India’s premier tennis players, Rohan Bopanna took a convincing first round win at the Chengdu Open today, beating the Spanish-Argentinian pair of Feliciano Lopez and Juan Monaco 6-2, 6-4 to progress to round two. Bopanna, who partnered Romania's Florin Mergea for 2015 and much of 2016, appears to have split with his former partner, and today took victory with India’s Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who is more active on the Challenger tour.
Bopanna was among the top 10 ranked men’s doubles players earlier this year, with that ranking giving him a direct entry to the Olympic Games at Rio. Although he – and partner Leander Paes were unable to perform at the men’s doubles, crashing out in the first round, Bopanna managed to progress until the bronze medal match with Sania Mirza, although the pair eventually lost out on medaling.
The Indian ace will be buoyed by the result – he has yet to win a title this year, and has a 23-19 Win-loss record.
World No. 1 doubles player Sania Mirza and partner Barbora Strycova have a first-round bye in the women’s doubles at the Wuhan Open, and will play their opening match tomorrow.
