French Open 2018: Rohan Bopanna/Roger Vasselin storm into the quarter finals at Roland Garros

The Indo-French combine of Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger Vasselin pulled a huge upset on Court 6 at Roland Garros in the Men's double third round by defeating the top seeded Polish-Brazilian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-4 7-6(1) in an hour and 30 minutes. The thirteenth seeds Bopanna and Roger Vasselin began the first set with an early break and maintained the momentum. They struck 4 aces and won 80% of the first serve points in the opener while fending off four break points. The top seeds Melo and Kubot on the other hand double faulted twice and won only 29 total points to let the set slip away from their hands.

A major upset!

In the second set, Kubot and Melo broke Bopanna and Roger Vasselin's serve once and despite having 3 chances to break them back, Bopanna and Roger  managed to convert only 1 of them. The set was close and eventually went into a tie-breaker. The Indo-French pair made no mistake in the tie break as they barely let Melo and Kubot find the rhythm by wrapping up the match with a total of 75 points in contrast to 65 from the top seed duo of Kubot and Melo. Melo and Kubot had defeated the duo of Bopanna and Roger Vasselin in the semi-finals of the Sydney International. But today was just not their day. The Indo-French pair dished out some fine tennis to derail the top seeds.

Next in line for Rohan Bopanna

Rohan Bopanna and Roger Vasselin will next face Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya to punch a ticket  into the semifinals. The Austrian-Croat pair of Mektic and Peya are the 8th seeds and have a healthy 18-5 record on clay this season. Coming from the back of two titles in Madrid and Marrakech, the duo has also made a semi final in Acapulco and a quarter final in Miami. Meanwhile, this is the third QF for the 38-year-old Indian at the French Open. He is the lone hope of Indian contention at Roland Garros this year after Yuki Bhambri, Divij Sharan crashed out. Earlier Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal had failed to qualify for the Main draw leaving a void in the Indian participation at the second Grand Slam of the year. Bopanna's win against the top seeds today came as an emollient on the painful heartbreak of Indian tennis fans who were left desolate with the exits of their favourite stars from the French Open. It will remain to see if the Indo-French pair gallops through the next hurdle and make it to the semi finals in Paris.