India’s doubles pair of Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan were outclassed 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the French Open by second seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic on Friday. The match lasted for an hour and 17 minutes.
In a first round mixed doubles match later, seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos were ousted by the unseeded pairing of Shuai Zhang and John Peers 2-6, 3-6 in 56 minutes.
Bhambri and Sharan were going toe-to-toe against the second seeds in the first set before they lost 7-5. The second set saw the Austria-Crot pair take their game a notch higher against their Indian opponents.
With Bhambri and Sharan unable to notch good numbers on their serve, their opponents forced twice as many break points on the Indians’ serve. Marach and Pavic won the second 6-3.
The Indian pair could only notch up one ace compared to seven served by the second seeds. The Indian pair managed to win 49 points in total compared to 63 won by the second seeds.
Earlier, Bhambri and Sharan had defeated Purav Raja and Fabrice Martin in round one.
It was not a great start in the mixed doubles as Bopanna, who won the title with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski last year, as he and Babos couldn’t get going against the Chinese-Australian pairing. Bopanna and Babos faced as many as six break points on their serve, with their opponents converting four of them. In comparison, the Indo-Hungarian duo managed to convert only of their three break point opportunities.
Bopanna is still alive in the men’s doubles draw, where he is pairing with France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
India’s mixed doubles campaign came to an end after Sharan and his Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama lost to Santiago Gonzalez and Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 3-6, 5-10 in the first round.
