Paris: India’s campaign ended at the French Open with the third round defeats of Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri with their respective partners in the men’s doubles event, here Sunday.
Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek fought tooth and nail before falling 2-6 6-7(5) to second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten, ranked three and four in the world, respectively.
Bhambri and his American partner Robert Galloway lost 4-6 4-6 to ninth seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King from the United States.
An early break put the Indo-American pair in a disadvantageous position. They saved four set points in game nine after being down 0-40 but Galloway found a way to hold and stay alive in the opening set.
Harrison, though, served out the set after being 0-30.
At 4-4 in the second set, Bhambri dropped serve, which proved decisive in the outcome of the match. The Indian hit an overhead smash long at 30-all and Galloway netted a volley on the break point to hand an opportunity to their rivals to close the match in the next game..
Bhambri netted a forehand return at 30-all to give King the first match point and Galloway hit his return wide..
Earlier, Heliovaara and Patten zoomed to a 5-1 lead in the opening set with a double break. The Finn served out the set at love, finishing the game with an overhead smash on a return.
Bopanna made a solid start to the second set, holding without losing a point on his serve. Left-handed Patten too came out all guns blazing, sending down some measured and powerful angled serves.
Bopanna and Pavlasek got an opening when at 2-3, Patten began game six with a double fault and lost another point to be down 0-30 but the Briton reeled off four straight points to avert the danger.
There was no break of serve and eventually the second set was stretched to a tie-breaker in which the second seeds prevailed when Heliovaara found a stunning service return winner on first match point.
N Sriram Balaji and Rithvik Bolipalli have already exited the tournament.
In the Junior event, India’s exciting prospect for future Manas Dhamne bowed out of the boys singles after losing 5-7 3-6 to fellow American qualifier Ronit Karki.
The 17-year-old Dhamne had entered the main draw as a qualifier. He could not play to his potential on Sunday.
Hitesh Chauhan also qualified for the boys singles and is drawn to meet Sweden’s Ludvig Fredrik Hede.
