Bopanna-Mergea beat Bryan brothers in ATP World Tour Finals debut
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea beat top seeds and defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan in straight sets in their men’s doubles opening rubber on Sunday.
Making their team debut at the prestigious $7 million ATP World Tour Finals, the season-ending event of the tennis calendar, the Indo-Romanian duo of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea came out with a brilliant performance to drub top seeds and defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan in straight sets in their men’s doubles opening rubber of Group Ashe/Smith on Sunday.

The eighth-seeded pairing took exactly an hour to defeat the legendary American pair 6-4, 6-3 in the round robin encounter at The O2 Arena. This was the winning pair’s second win in four meetings over the Bryan brothers and their first on a hard court. The last time they beat the Bryans was in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon earlier this year, where they earned a four-set triumph.

A series of breaks saw the two pairs go neck-and-neck in the opening set until Bopanna held on in the 10th game to take the set 6-4. Both pairs received five break points each but Bopanna and Mergea converted three to the two of the Bryans.
The second set was more or less an easy task for the eighth seeds as they broke early and led 2-0. From there on, Bopanna and Mergea did not look back and piled on more pressure on their opponents.
A couple of unforced errors from the American duo and two vital break points helped Bopanna-Mergea seal a memorable win.
Bopanna and Mergea currently top the four-team group and will next face British-Australian fourth seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers, who defeated Italian fifth seeds Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 7-6 (5), 3-6, 11-9, on Tuesday.
Only the top eight players/teams play in the World Tour Finals. It is the most prestigious event in the tennis calendar after the four Grand Slam tourneys.