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Tennis

Australian Open 2018: India suffers two staggering loses on day 8th in the Men's Doubles at Melbourne Park

Australian Open 2018: India suffers two staggering loses on day 8th in the Mens Doubles at Melbourne Park
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By

Anjali Banerjee

Published: 22 Jan 2018 7:08 AM GMT
Indian contention in the Men's Doubles suffered two staggering losses on the Eighth day of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Both Divij Sharan and Rohan Bopanna bowed out after being defeated by their respective rivals.
The 16th seeded Indo- American duo of Divij Sharan and Rajeev Ram suffered a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 4-6 defeat at the hands of top seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Brazil's world number one Marcelo Melo.
The match of Divij Sharan and Rajeev Ram that lasted two hours twelve minutes had begun with Divij and Rajeev bagging the first set. With 2 Aces and breaking the oppponents twice, the combine of Sharan and Ram won 32 points as compared to 18 of their counterparts.
Rajeev and Sharan were giving a very tough time to Melo and Kubot in the second set too. Keeping it close, the set headed to a tie-break and winning 85% of first serves, the set was taken by the top seed duo.
The decider was dominated by the the combine of Kubot and Melo. A whopping of 94% of first serves and breaking the Indo-American duo once, they bagged the decider with finesse.
Divij and Ram broke the duo of Melo and Kubot only twice in the match despite having 6 chances to do so. Despite taking the opening set, Divij and Ram failed to sustain the challenge of the top seeds.
In the second match of the day, pairing with Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Bopanna lost to Oliver Marach of Austria and Croatia's Mate Pavic 4-6, 7-6, (7-5) 3-6 at Melbourne Park. The contest lasted a little over two hours and saw the Indo-French combination convert one out of two break point chances, while their opponents converted three out of 12 break points.
Dropping the first set, Bopanna and Roger- Vasseling came back brilliantly to take the second set in an exciting tie-break. Winning 81% of first serves and converting 1 out of the 2 break point opportunities, the set was in their clasp forcing a decider.
However a dismal show in the final set was the culprit for Bopanna and Roger- Vasselin who committed one double fault and won only 43% of first serves as compared to Marach and Pavic's 86%.
India's hopes now rest on the mixed doubles draw where Rohan Bopanna and his Hungarian partner Timea Babos are in the second round after beating Ellen Perez and Andrew Whittington in the opening round.
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