India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden bowed out in the Round of 32 in the men’s doubles event at the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.
The top seeded pair, who had won the 2024 Australian Open earlier this year, lost 3-6, 6-7 (6-8) to Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia in a match that lasted 76 minutes.
The no 1 seeds were quickly pegged behind in the first set and could not recover after being broken by Arevalo and Pavic.
However, Bopanna and Ebden made a comeback in the second set to take it to a tie break, but were unable to force a decider as they crashed out in the second round.
Nagal’s match suspended
Meanwhile, Sumit Nagal’s men’s singles match against world No 7 Holger Rune of Denmark was suspended due to rain.
The unseeded Nagal had lost the first set 3-6 and trailed 1-2 in the second when rain interrupted the proceedings at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin clay court.
The 26-year-old Nagal had earlier defeated eighth seeded Flavio Cobolli and the third seeded Facundo Diaz Acosto in the qualifiers to enter the main draw of the competition.
The highest ranked Indian singles player then stunned Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory for an unlikely opening round victory.
The win over Arnaldi saw Nagal become the first Indian to win a main draw match at the Monte Carlo Masters.