The Indian challenge at the US Open ended on Thursday after Rohan Bopanna lost both his first round mixed and men’s doubles matches at the Major in New York.
The 42-year-old world No 19, who made it to the French Open semifinal earlier this year, was the ninth seeded pair along with partner Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands. But they ended up losing 7-6 (2), 6-2 to Italian pair of Andrea Vavassori and Lorenzo Sonego on Court 8.
Bopanna was back in action a few hours later, this time on Court 6, for his mixed doubles match along with Chinese partner Zhaoxuan Yang – seeded sixth. They came up against Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski – with whom Bopanna won the 2017 French Open title – and Australia’s Max Purcell.
But it was the unseeded scratch-pair that went on to win the match 7-5, 7-5 to end the Indian contingent’s hopes at the last Slam of the year.
Sania Mirza, for whom this was expected to be the last Major appearance of her career, pulled out of the event a week before due to injury.
Along with Bopanna, Ramkumar Ramanathan was the only other Indian who was competing in the main draw. But he and Serbian partner Nikola Cacic lost 6-4, 6-4 to 15th seeded Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.
