Sania Mirza’s entry into the mixed doubles quarterfinals was the only silver lining for India as both Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost their respective last eight encounters in the men’s doubles at the French Open.
Second seeded Sania and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig beat French pair of Alize Cornet and Jonathan Eysseric 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 10-8 in a closely-fought second round match.
In the men’s doubles, India’s challenge ended today as Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded sixth, went down 4-6 4-6 to third seeds Dodig and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
The 16th seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski also lost in straight sets to fifth seeded formidable American pair of Mike and Bob Bryan. The result was 7-6 (14-12) 6-3 in favour of Bryan brothers.
The only cheer for the Indians was Sania’s performance with his Croatian partner Dodig. The second seeds will now meet Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and veteran Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the quarterfinals. Leander and Martina Hingis are also in the mixed doubles quarterfinals and are pitted against fifth seeds Bruno Soares and Elena Vesnina.
Earlier, in a lopsided contest, Bopanna and Mergea struggled to handle Dodig and Melo’s fine service games.
Later for the 43-year-old Paes, eyeing a record seventh Olympics appearance, it was good first set in which the Indo-Polish pair stretched their much-fancied American duo to the tie-breaker. This was after both pairs traded a break each.
Feature image source: PTI