Madrid Open: India's Rohan Bopanna loses in hard-fought men's doubles final

Rohan Bopanna. Pic/AFP

Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden fell short of winning the Madrid Open men's doubles title, crashing to the Russian pair of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in a hard-fought final here on Saturday.

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, who were seeded seventh here, went down to the unseeded Russian pair of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 in their second ATP Masters 1000 final of the season.

The Indian-Australian pair lost the first set after they were broken in the eighth game (5-3). In the second set, Bopanna and Ebden broke their Russian opponent's serve in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead and went on to win the set 6-3. The Super Tiebreaker belonged to the Russians as they won it 10-3, after taking an early 6-0 lead.

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were aiming to win their third tennis title of the year after victories in Doha (Qatar Open) and Indian Wells.

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This was also Rohan'Bopanna's fourth final of the year. He had reached the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open 2023 with Sania Mirza.

Competing in front of a lively crowd at Manolo Santana Stadium, Khachanov and Rublev, the Russian singles stars, produced a strong serving performance to triumph after 71 minutes. They won 83 per cent (25/30) of their first-serve points and raced away in the Match Tie-break to seal their victory.

Khachanov and Rublev showed grit throughout their run to the trophy, earning Match Tie-break wins in four of their five matches. They also defeated seeds Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo/Jean-Julien Rojer.

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