Yuki Bhambri Wins, Rithvik Bollipalli Loses In French Open Men's Doubles Opening Round
India's Yuki Bhambri and his American partner Robert Galloway secured a hard-fought victory but Rithvik Bollipalli's search for his maiden win in a Grand Slam main draw continued in the French Open men's doubles opening round, here on Wednesday. Bhambri and Galloway edged out Robin Haase and Hendrik Jebens 6-3 6-7(8) 6-3 in a fast-paced high-quality first round match. However, Bollipalli and his Colombian partner Nicolas Barrientos suffered a tame straight set defeat.
Canada's Gabriel Diallo and Briton Jacob Fearnley, who knocked out Stanislas Wawrinka in the singles on Monday, dominated the contest, winning 6-0 6-2 in just 56 minutes.
Bhambri was a live wire at the net, dispatching some delectable volley winners and was also solid with his strokes from the back of the court. His court coverage was also tremendous.
They saved two set points in the second set tie-break and had a match point but Bhambri's forehand kissed the net. Haase succeeded in stretching the game to the decider.
Bhambri and Galloway broke Jebens in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and consolidated the break.
Bhambri ended the match with a angled volley winner.
Bollipalli and Barrientos, who won the ATP 250 Chile Open in March, struggled to serve well and make returns, gifting away easy points to their rivals. Often the Indo-Colombian combo left gap on the court for their rivals to exploit.
The Indian was broken early with Diallo and Fearnley making some superb returns on his serve. His partner Barrientos too struggled badly to get going and in no time the Canadian-British pair had raced to a commanding 4-0 lead.
Fearnley's ferocious forehands from the baseline were already too hot to handle and Bollipalli's lack of control while serving made it too easy for the Canadian-British team.
The Indian struggled to pick a half-volley at 15-30 to offer two set points to the rivals and made a volley error on the following point to surrender the opening set.
There was no twist in the tale except that Barrientos managed to hold his serve in the second game of the second set while Diallo and Fearnley continued to spit fire.
Bollipalli served a double fault to be down by a match point but saved the chance in game eight. Barrientos could not return a powerful Diallo forehand and then sent a ball wide on the next match point.
Later in the day, India's Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji will also be in action in the men's doubles.
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