Italian Open: Rohan-Ebden lose in straight sets in 2nd round

Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden suffered another early exit on the ATP circuit as they conceded a straight-set (2-6, 4-6) defeat to the home favourites in the second round of the Italian Open in Rome on Tuesday.

The Indo-Aussie pair lost to Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a match which lasted for 74 minutes.

This was the third meeting between the two pairings and all of those have taken place this year only, including a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open. However, this is the first time the Italian pair has come out on top of the Indo-Australian pair.

Rohan-Ebden had a horrible start to the match as they got broken in the first serve of the opening game. They also had a poor set as they conceded break points in each of their four serving games and saved five break points before going down by a double break in the seventh game.

The Italians took the opportunity with both hands and easily grabbed the first set 6-2. The second set was even more weird as both the pairs struggled to hold on to their serves and a total of five breaks occurred throughout the set.

But, the second-seeded Indo-Aussie pair conceded three of those five breaks and hence dropped the set and then the match in a very comfortable manner. This is the third consecutive early-round exit for the former world no.1 pairing.

With the French Open at the iconic Roland Garros just a few weeks away, the early exits left Bopanna and Ebden to work on their mistakes.