Dubai Open: Bopanna-Dodig crash out in the first round

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost in straight sets in their men’s doubles first-round match at the 2025 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.

The Indo-Croatian duo lost 2-6, 4-6 to England’s Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. This was the same pair Bopanna lost his match last week at the Doha ATP, partnering with Nuno Borges of Portugal

The winning pair will be up against the Indo-Aussie pair of Yuki Bhambri and Alexei Popyrin in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Earlier, Bhambri and Popyrin knocked out the top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in the round of 16.

Rohan Bopanna, 44, and Ivan Dodig, 40, were broken twice in the first and third game as the English pair went 4-0 up and eventually closed the first set 6-2 in their favour.

One expected the experienced Bopanna-Dodig pair to put up a fight in the second set as both pairs held serve to level at 4-4.

But, it was the English pair that took the lead, breaking their opponents in the ninth game and closing the set in their favour,6-4.

After Rohan Bopanna’s elimination from the men’s doubles competition, Yuki Bhambri is the only Indian in contention.