French Open: Bopanna-Pavlasek bow out after pre-quarterfinal loss

Paris, June 1 (IANS) India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek put up a spirited fight but were knocked out of the French Open on Sunday by second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.

The unseeded Indo-Czech duo fell 2-6, 6-7(5) in the pre-quarterfinals to Finland’s Heliovaara and Britain’s Patten, who are ranked third and fourth in the world, respectively.

The second seeds raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set with two breaks of serve. Heliovaara then closed out the set with a dominant service game, finishing with a powerful overhead smash.

Bopanna started strong in the second set, holding serve to love. Patten responded equally well, firing in a series of sharp, angled serves.

Bopanna and Pavlasek had a chance to break at 2-3 when Patten opened game six with a double fault and quickly went down 0-30. However, the Briton responded under pressure, winning four consecutive points to escape unscathed.

With no breaks of serve in the second set, it went to a tiebreak, where Heliovaara sealed the match with a stunning return winner on the first match point.

Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri is set to play his third-round match alongside American partner Robert Galloway. They face the ninth-seeded American pair Christian Harrison and Evan King.

In the Junior Championship, India’s promising young player Manas Dhamne exited the tournament after a 5-7, 3-6 defeat to fellow qualifier Ronit Karki of the United States.

The 17-year-old Dhamne, who had made it into the main draw through qualifying, struggled to find his rhythm on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the three-time Roland-Garros champion Novak Djokovic scored the 99th win of his career on the Paris clay after beating Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to enter the fourth round of the tournament.

--IANS

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