French Open: Yuki-Saketh enter 2nd round, Bopanna-Ebden lose in opener
The Indian tennis pair of Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni notched up a straight-set win over France’s Arthur Rinderknech and Enzo Couacaud in men’s doubles to make a good start to their French Open campaign here on Wednesday.
Yuki and Saketh, who had won the Bangkok Open Challenger in January this year, took 64 minutes to get the better of Arthur and Enzo 6-3 6-2 in their opening match.
However, Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden couldn’t cross the opening hurdle, going down 5-7 6-7 (5-7) to French combination of Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul in the men’s doubles competition.
The India-Australian pair, who had won the BNP Paribas Open, Qatar Open and reached the finals of Madrid Open this year, saved five match points before the French duo prevailed.
It was also the end of road for N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan after they went down 3-6 4-6 to Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka and Alexei Popyrin of Australia in their opener.
