Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, one of the in-form pairs on the tour this year, fell at the first hurdle in men’s doubles event at the French Open in Paris on Wednesday.
Bopanna and Ebden, the sixth seeds, were defeated 5-7, 6-7 (5) by the French pair of Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul.
There was however, a win for the Indian contingent, as Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni prevailed in a straight sets over France’s Arthur Rinderknech and Enzo Couacaud, winning 6-3, 6-2.
Bopanna, now 43, had broken back into the top 10 world rankings for the first time since 2016 earlier this week. He and Ebden had won the Indian Wells Masters earlier this year. They had also won the ATP 250 title in Doha and finished as runners-up in Rotterdam and the Madrid Masters.
On Wednesday however, they lost out in a match that lasted an hour and 39 minutes.
Ebden’s serve was broken while he was serving at 5-6 in the first set to give the French team the opening set. In the second set, the home team threatened to break the Australian’s serve at the same juncture. But Bopanna and Ebden managed to fend off four match points to take the set into a tiebreak.
They managed to cancel out one more match point, but could do nothing as the French team converted their sixth match point – but first on their serve – to upset the sixth seeds.
Earlier in the day, Bhambri and Myneni, who had won the Bangkok Open Challenger earlier in January, took just 64 minutes to make it to the second round of the tournament. In a dominant display, the Indian duo faced just one break point but remained unbroken throughout the match.
They next take on the ninth-seeded pair of Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez.
They remain the only Indians left at the French Open senior events, as compatriots Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji lost out to Alexei Popyrin and Ilya Ivashka 3-6, 4-6 in the first round doubles match.