Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Ben Shelton advance at Madrid Open; Yuki Bhambri exits

India's Rohan Bopanna and his partner Ben Shelton advanced to the men's doubles second round of the 2025 Madrid Open ATP 1000 event on Tuesday.

They pair beat the eighth seeded the all-American pair of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 6-7, 7-5, 10-7 in a hard-fought 1 hour 41-minute long battle.

Bopanna and Shelton did not have the best of starts as they were broken in the second game with their first serve. Lammons and Withrow opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set.

The Indo-American pair then won the next four games – holding their serve twice and breaking Lammons and Withrow twice to take a 4-3 lead.

Lammons and Withrow, however, hit back soon after breaking in the eighth game to level up at 4-4.

Both the pairs held their respective serves in the next two games, forcing the first set into a tie-breaker. Bopanna and Shelton led the tie-break 5-4 before they lost three points in a row to lose it 5-7 and lost concede the first set 6-7.

The see saw battle continued in the second set as Bopanna and Shelton were broken in the very first game before they broke back in the fourth to level up at 2-2.

From there on both pairs held their respective serves until the 12th game, where Bopanna and Shelton broke through to win the second set 7-5 and forced a match tie-breaker.

The Indo-American pair dominated the tiebreak right from the start, racing to a 6-3 lead. Lammons and Withrow did try to fight their way back into the contest, but Bopanna and Shelton proved too hot to handle as they wrapped it up 10-7 to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

Yuki Bhambri exits

The other Indian in contention at the 2025 Madrid Open ATP 1000, Yuki Bhambri and his partner Robert Galloway bowed out in the opening round following a following a straight sets 3-6, (4)6-7 loss to the second seeded Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.

Bhambri and Galloway were broken in the sixth game and were unable to return the favour as they surrendered the first set 3-6.

The second set saw both Bhambri-Galloway and Heliovaara-Patten hold their respective serves for all 12 games, forcing a tiebreak.

The Indo-American pair was subdued in the tiebreak right from the beginning, as Heliovaara and Patten opened up a 6-1 lead within the blink of an eye.

Bhambri-Galloway did fight back to reduce the deficit to 4-6 but Patten and Heliovaara soon found a way to stop that run and pocket it 7-4 to wrap up the match in an hour and 27 minutes.