US Open 2019 | Rohan Bopanna bows out, ends India’s campaign
India’s contention in the US Open came to a sad end on Monday when Rohan Bopanna, alongside his partner Denis Shapovalov, was eliminated in the round of 16 from the men’s doubles. In the mixed doubles, Bopanna had partnered with Abigail Soears and saw a similar fate in the same round.
The 39-year-old veteran tennis player has been nearing the end of his career and looked to be in peak form when he, alongside Shapalov, got the better of four-time Grand Slam champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round.
The hopes were up from the player who had finished as the runner-up in the 2010 US Open. And he got a walkover in the second round as well when Italy’s Andreas Seppi and Marco Cecchinato decided to pull out. The star-studded Indo-Canadian pair was heavy favourites against Britain’s Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski but things fell apart when they were beaten 3-6, 4-6.
They held their serves well until the eighth game of the first set where they were broken to lose the first set 3-6. The second set saw themselves being broken in the seventh game and although they got as many as two break points in the next one, Murray and Skupski saved them to take it 6-4.
In the mixed doubles as well, Bopanna and Soears were outwitted in the pre-quarterfinal where they were up against Fabrice Martin and Raquel Atawo. They lost 5-7, 6-7 in the two tight sets.
