N Sriram Balaji won his first main draw men’s doubles match at the French Open as Yuki Bhambri exited in the opening round of men’s doubles in Paris on Friday.
Balaji combined with Mexico’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela Martinez to beat Reese Stalder and Sem Verbeek 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round match that lasted 1 hour and 19 minutes.
Bhambri, whose match was interrupted by rain, partnered with France’s Albano Olivetti as they lost 3-6, 6(5)-7 to Australian John Peers and Russian Roman Safiullin.
It was a solid start for Balaji and Martinez who broke their opponent’s serve to lead 3-1 in the opening set. That was the only breakpoint of the first set that was converted as Balaji and Martinez then served for the set to win 6-3.
Stalder and Verbeek opened the second set on their serve, but were broken again in the third game as Balaji and Martinez went 2-1. However, Stalder and Verbeek came back strongly to break their opponents back in the sixth game and level things at 3-all. This fightback didn’t last long as Balaji and Martinez broke back in the next game and ultimately ended up serving for the match to win 6-3, 6-4.
Bhambri and Olivetti were put on the backfoot early in the opening set of their match as Peers and Safiullin converted a break point in the fourth game and held their serve in the following game to lead 4-1. The lead was too much for Bhambri and his partner to overcome despite them holding serve as Peers and Safiullin won 6-3.
In the second set, the fourth game was a hotly-contested one as deuce was reached three time before Peers and Safiullin held on with the scoreline at 2-all. The Australian-Russian pair then broke the Indo-French duo before holding on to their serve to lead 4-2.
Peers and Safiullin were on track to seal the match by serving for it at 5-4, but a splendid game from Bhambri and Olivetti saw them break back and two games later, enforce the tie-breaker. They would end up losing the tie-breaker 5-7 to exit in the opening round itself.
