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Rohan Bopanna was left the only Indian in the 2017 US Open mixed doubles section after Sania Mirza made a shock opening round exit from the draw at New York on Friday. Mirza was seeded second alongside Ivan Dodig of Croatia and were the heavy favourites against the inexperienced Latvian-French pair of Jelena Ostapenko and Fabrice Martin.
But the second seeds squandered a one-set advantage to succumb to a 7-5, 3-6, 6-10 defeat in 1 hour 20 minutes.
Mirza and Dodig even converted all three of the break point chances they had. It was only in the match deciding tie-break that Ostapenko and Martin raised their level against their much-fancied opponents to come away the winners.
The Indo-Croatian pair has already made two Grand Slam finals with their most recent one coming at the Australian Open in January this year.
Mirza is still in contention in women’s doubles where she is seeded fourth in tandem with China’s Peng Shuai. The two have made a blazing start to their 2017 US Open campaign after pummelling the Croatian combine of Donna Vekic and Petra Martic, 6-4, 6-1.
Mirza has struggled for most of the year in women’s doubles with quite a few of her partners suffering injuries. Lack of consistent partnership has been instrumental in making early exits.
She has joined forces with the former World No. 1 Peng in the build-up to the US Open and hopes to make an impact at Flushing Meadows where the Indian has been a winner in 2015.
Bopanna out of men’s doubles
With Mirza’s ouster from mixed doubles, Bopanna will now be the only one flying the Indian Tricolour in that category. He and Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski are seeded seventh and they start off their challenge against the 2017 Wimbledon runners-up Henri Kontinen and Heather Watson.
Bopanna and Dabrowski won the French Open mixed doubles title this year.
The Indian, meanwhile, suffered a narrow loss in men’s doubles earlier in the day when he and Pablo Cuevas went down 7-5, 4-6, 4-6 to the former Australian Open winners Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli.
While Leander Paes and Purav Raja cruised into the second round with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over the Serbian combine of Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki, Raja’s former partner Divij Sharan crumbled to defeat in the first round.
Sharan and Andre Begemann of Germany were beaten 4-6, 4-6 by the 11th seeds and 2016 French Open winners Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.
Loss in juniors
India’s challenge did not get off to a good start in the juniors section with the 14th seeded Nitin Kumar Sinha bowing out to Nick Hardt of Dominican Republic, 4-6, 3-6.
