French Open: Bopanna, Paes advance in men’s doubles, Divij Sharan crashes out

Bopanna, Paes advance in men’s doubles

Continuing their brilliant run, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Marius Copil advanced to the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals of French Open after securing a straight-set win.

Bopanna-Copil registered a 6-4 6-4 win over Bengamin Bonzi and Antoine Hoang in a second-round match that lasted an hour and 11 minutes on Friday.

The duo will now face Serbian pair of Dusan Lajovic and Janko Tipsarevic for a place in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, veteran Leander Paes registered a comfortable straight sets victory in the men’s doubles first round. Paes and his French partner Benoit Paire defeat Martin Klizan and Dominic Inglot 6-4, 6-4.

However, Divij Sharan and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner made an early exit, losing their second round match in straight sets.

The unseeded Indo-Brazilian pair lost 3-6 4-6 against eighth seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers in exact one hour.

Divij and Demoliner could not convert any of the two break chances they got besides dropping their serve twice. It is the fourth tournament together for Divij and the Brazilian partner.

Divij had begun the season by teaming up with compatriot Bopanna but split after losing four first round matches in seven tournaments in a three-month partnership.

Earlier, they had won the season-opening Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune.