French Open 2018: Disappointing day for Indian tennis at Roland Garros

The Indian contention today in the Men's doubles and Mixed doubles at Roland Garros came to a grinding halt as Yuki Bhambri, Divij Sharan and Rohan Bopanna all lost their doubles and Mixed doubles matches today. The only hope now rests in the Men's doubles on the shoulders of the Indo-French pair of Bopanna and Roger Vasselin who are into the Third round after defeating Benjamin Bonzi and Gregoiri Jacq 6-1 6-2.

A disappointing outing for Indian Tennis at Roland Garros.

With all three Indians Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina failing to qualify, it was a grim scenario at the Second Grand Slam of the season in the Singles events at the tournament. World No. 93, Yuki Bhambri who was the only Indian in the Main draw of the Men's singles had lost in the opening round. The 25-year old who was playing in the Doubles too and had paired with compatriot Divij Sharan lost to second seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 5-7 3-6 today and bowed out. In the Mixed Doubles, the duo of Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos lost in straight sets 2-6 3-6 to Shuai Zhang and John Peers. Divij Sharan who was drawn at the last minute to play Mixed doubles with Japan's Shuko Aoyama also crashed out in the first round 6-2 3-6 5-10 outplayed by the pair of Santiago Gonzalez and Katarina Srebotnik.

A round up of the doubles and Mixed doubles matches.

Men's doubles Round 2 ...Yuki Bhambri/ Divij Sharan vs Oliver Marach/ Mate Pavic

On court 6, the second seeded duo of Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic needed an hour and 17 minutes to send the Indian duo of Bhambri and Sharan packing with an authoritative 7-5 6-3 over the Indians. The Austrian Croat pair was flawless on their serves thundering down 7 aces and winning 61% of first serve points. They broke the Indians' serve thrice as compared to only once from Bhambri and Sharan. Winning a total of 67 points Pavic and Marach ran away with the match. The 2017 Australian Open champs, this duo has been the most consistent of pairs on the ATP tour. With a brilliant 10-2 on clay this season, Marach and Pavic will look to deep into the French Open. Bhambri and Sharan had taken out Purav Raja and Fabrice Martin in the first round on wednesday. This was the second time in this season that Divij Sharan and Yuki Bhambri had got together as a team to play in the Doubles at the French Open. The duo had earlier played in January at the inaugural Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune and finished as semi finalists at the ATP 250 event. In 2017 the duo reached the Finals of the Tashkent Challenger in October but lost to Podlipnik-Castilo Hans and Vasilevski Andrei in the showdown.

Mixed Doubles Round 1 Rohan Bopanna/ Timea Babos vs Shuai Zhang/John Peers

In just 56 minutes on Court 14, 7th seeds The Indo-Hungarian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos succumbed 2-6 3-6 to Shua Zhang and John Peers. In what was a dismal show from Bopanna and Babos, the combine ended up the match by winning only 43 total points as against 60 from Zhang and Peers. The Australian-Chinese pair won 77% of first serve points while the Indo-Hungarian duo won only 61% of first serves. Despite having 3 chances to break the opponents' serve, Babos and Bopanna broke only once whereas got broken from Zhang and Peers 4 times in the duration of the match. Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos have been the 2018 Australian Open runners up where the duo of Mate Pavic and Gabriela Dabrowski got the better of them 2-6 6-4 11-9 in a tight, nail biting encounter. The World No. 24 in Doubles, Bopanna won his maiden Grand Slam Title in the Mixed doubles at Roland Garros alongside Gabriela Dabrowski in 2017. He failed to defend his title this year adding yet another disappointing loss to his resume.

Bopanna and Roger Vasselin cruise into the third round in the Men's Doubles.

Bopanna and his French partner Edouard-Roger Vasselin who are seeded 13th in the Men's doubles are safely through into the third round a Roland Garros. The duo had taken out the combine of Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe in the opening round. In the second round Bopanna and Roger got the better of Benjamin Bonzi and Gregoire Jacq 6-1 6-2 in just 48 minutes on Court 6. Playing some flawless tennis, the Indo-French pair registered a brilliant 75% of first serves and converted 5 chances out of 6 to break their opoonent's serve. Raining down 4 aces, Bopanna/ Roger wrapped the match winning a total of 53 points as against a meagre of 28 from Bonzi and Jacq.

Mixed doubles Round 1 ...Divij Sharan/Shuko Aoyama vs Katarina Srebotnik/ Santiago Gonzalez.

In an hour and 5 minutes, Divij Sharan and Shuko Aoyama lost their match 6-2 3-6 5-10 against Katarina Srebotnik and Santiago Gonzalez in the Mixed doubles opening round. Sharan and Aoyama who were drawn at the last minute in the Mixed doubles began their match on a high. In the first set, they converted 2 out of 5 break points at their disposal whereas Katarina and Santiago could not break the Sharan and Aoyama serve even once despite having one chance in hands which let the set slip from thier hands. After winning the first set Sharan and Aoyama could not keep the momentum in the second. Srebotnik and Gonzalez broke Sharan and Aoyama's serve once in the second. Mounting unforced errors from Sharan and Aoyama finally saw them dropping the second set. In the deciding set Gonzalez and Srebotnik barely let the Indo- Japanese pair have a say. They captured a brilliant 75% of first serve percentage and won a total of 10 points in the decider as against 5 from Sharan and Aoyama to finally clinch the match. At the end, everything now rests on the 13th seeds Rohan Bopanna and Roger Vasselin in the Men's doubles who have moved into the third round at Roland Garros. They will take on top seeds Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot in the Round of 16.