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Australian Open: Rohan Bopanna advances to mixed doubles quarters
Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna earned a hard fought victory to sail through to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles category at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday.
Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna earned a hard fought victory to sail through to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles category at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday.
Bopanna, partnering Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan, beat the Czech-Polish combine of Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot in the mixed doubles second round. The third seeds needed an hour and 10 minutes to win the second round 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 on Show Court 3 of Melbourne Park.
After sharing the first two sets, it all boiled down to the super tie-break where the Indo-Chinese Taipei pair proved a tad better to clinch it 10-6. Bopanna and Chan were easily the more dominant pair. Their serve proved both a boon and a curse as, though they served as many as 10 aces, they also double faulted seven times!
In juniors’ action, Indians Pranjala Yadlapalli and Karman Thandi both won their girls’ singles second round matches to enter the third round.
No.10 seed Yadlapalli defeated Austrian Mira Antonitsch 7-6(5), 6-3 on Court 7 and next faces Russian eighth seed Anastasia Potapova while Thandi took care of Hungarian Panna Udvardy 6-4, 6-2 on Court 8 to be ready for local girl Sara Tomic.
In girls’ doubles first round, Thandi and Yadlapalli joined hands to be seeded fifth. They defeated Australian pairing of Petra Hule and Selina Turulja 6-4, 6-3 on Court 8 to enter the second round where they will take on Chinese combine of Siqi Cao and Jia Ren next.
