Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan reach Australian Open doubles pre-quarters

Bopanna and his partner Roger-Vasselin will now play Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, while Sharan and his partner Rajeev Ram are waiting for the outcome of the match between Kubot-Melo and Purcell-Saville to know their next-round opponents.

PTI

Melbourne: Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the Australian Open after clinching comfortable straight sets victory in their last-32 clash of the men's doubles event here on Friday.

The Indo-French pair faced no problem in dispatching Argentina's Leonardo Mayer and Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in a one-sided clash that lasted an hour and 17 minutes.

10th-seeds Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin made a dominant start to their match, winning 86% of their first serve points and smashing 13 winners to wrap up the opening set in just 28 minutes.

The second set was comparatively tougher for the Indo-French pair as they started committing more unforced errors before Roger-Vasselin's backhand winner down the line saw them eventually seal the tie-breaker.

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin will now play seventh-seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic in the pre-quarters.

Meanwhile, Divij Sharan and Rajeev Ram bounced back from a set down to make it to the last-16 of the men's doubles event. Sharan and Rajeev got the better of Italy's Fabio Fognini and Spain's Marcel Granollers 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in a tough second round that lasted for one hour and 10 minutes.

The pair will now lock horns with the winners of Lukasz Kubot-Marcelo Melo and Max Purcell-Luke Saville in the next round.