Hangzhou: An unexpected setback for India in tennis. Top seed Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri, who were the country’s gold hopes in men’s doubles, lost. The pair of Uzbekistan’s Sergey Fomin-Khumoyun Saltanov, who are far behind in the world rankings, shattered Indian hopes. Score: 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.
The Uzbeks, who won the first set easily, fought against the Indian pair in the second set, and came back to the match by breaking the serve of Bambri, who missed everything yesterday. In the super tiebreaker, India’s alliance has completely faded away. The 43-year-old Bopanna won gold last time with Divj Saran. Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles, Ramkumar-Saketh Maineni defeated Indonesia’s Anthony Susanto David Agung and entered the quarterfinals.
Ramkumar got a bye to the next round as his opponent reached the singles earlier. In women’s singles, Ankita Raina defeated Uzbekistan’s Sabrina Olimnova 6-0, 6-0 to enter the prequarters. In the other singles Rutja Bhosle defeated a struggling Arushan Sagandikova to advance to the next round.
After losing in men’s doubles, Bopanna teamed up with Rituja Bhosale to play mixed doubles and tasted success. The pair of Bopanna and Bhosale advanced to the pre-quarters by defeating the pair of Uzbekistan’s Mamamuradova and Maxim Shim with a score of 6-4, 6-2. In women’s dubs, Bhosale also crossed the first round with Karman Kaur.
2023-09-25 17:58:33
#Asian #Games #BopannaBambri #alliance #tennis #Madhyamam
