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Auckland Open 2020: Divij Sharan, Rohan Bopanna make it to quarter finals

Auckland Open 2020: Divij Sharan, Rohan Bopanna make it to quarter finals
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By

Sarah Waris

Published: 15 Jan 2020 6:24 AM GMT

Tennis ace Rohan Bopanna continued his good start in 2020 with a convincing first-round win at the Auckland Open in the men's doubles event. Partnering Henri Kontinen of Finland, the third seeds got the better of the New Zealand-English pair of Rhett Purcell and Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-2 in a game that lasted just under 55 minutes.

With it, the Indian continued his winning run in the year that had started with a title in Doha last week. Partnering Dutch player Wesley Koolhof, the team, making their debut at the Qatar Open, had seen off the second seeds in the semis before they got the better of Luke Bambridge and Santiago Gonzalez 3-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the finals.

Rohan Bopanna and Henri Kontinen
Rohan Bopanna and Henri Kontinen beat Rhett Purcell Cameron Norrie (Image: Google)

Bopanna, who had been ruled out of the Davis Cup played in November 2019 due to a shoulder injury, made a strong comeback to the professional circuit, and is eager to continue his form in the months leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

On his plans for the multi-nation event, the 39-year old, who is ranked 42 in the ATP double's ranking, stated that he is looking to qualify for the Games with Divij Sharan in the men's category, while another comeback star Sania Mirza remains his ideal partner for the mixed double's event.

Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak
Divij Sharan paired up with New Zealand's Artem Sitak to pull off a huge upset and beat top seeds John Peers/ Michael Venus 7-6(4), 7-6(3) (Image: Google)

On the other hand, Divij Sharan paired up with New Zealand's Artem Sitak to pull off a huge upset and beat top seeds John Peers/ Michael Venus 7-6(4), 7-6(3) to move into the QF in Auckland. This is Divij's first win in 2020.

Sitak and Sharan looked solid as a team and they were able to dig themselves out trouble a few times.

Sitak and Sharan were down 4-1 in the first set but fought back to sent it into a tiebreak.

In it Venus and Peers were up 3-1, but again the other team fought back and won it 7-4.

In the seventh game of the next set, Sharan dropped his serve, but Venus suffered the same fate in the next game. However, Sharan was broken again later in the set, putting Venus and Peers up 6-5. But once more Venus was broken as Sharan stepped up with some huge returns. In the tiebreak, Sitak and Sharan got an early minibreak and later in it they were up 6-3.

On the first match point, Sitak made a great return that hit the line and move him into the quarterfinals of the tournament. Although Sharan was broken twice in the second set, he did play well, especially when returning serves and it was partly because of this that he and Sitak were able to take both sets to tiebreaks.

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