India’s tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov stormed into the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles category of the Rotterdam Open Tennis Tournament. The Indo-Canadian pair of Bopanna-Shapovalov outsmarted the Australian pair of John Pearce and Mitchell Venus in a keenly contested battle.
The Indo-Canadian pair of Bopanna-Shapovalov showed the door to the Australian pair by registering a 7-6, 6-7, 10-8 victory. The pair of Bopanna-Shapovalov will now lock horns with fourth seed Dutch tennis player Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau who hails from Romania.
Then Indo-Canadian pair of Bopanna-Shapovalov faced a tough contest from the Australian pair as the first set itself was decided by a tie-break. Bopanna-Shapovalov won the first set after the tie-break but the Australian pair raced back to win the second set again in a tie-break to level back the contest.
However, the 39-year-old Bopanna brought all his experience into play and was helped by Shapovalov’s resolve to fight till the end. It is to be noted that the Indo-Canadian pair showed their class as they sent down 12 aces and ended up winning 59 service points, in comparison to the 55 that Peers and Venus won.
Bopanna, ranked 41st in the doubles ATP ranking, is aiming to accumulate as many points as possible to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Bopanna has made it clear that he wants to participate in the summer extravaganza of sports in Tokyo alongside Divij Sharan, currently ranked 55 in the ATP rankings.
It is to be noted that the top ten teams are eligible to earn a direct entry into the main draw of the team while the rest out of 32 possible slots are chosen according to the combined rankings of the two players. The combines ranking of Bopanna and Sharan is not enough to earn them an Olympic berth and that is why both these players are playing in separate tournaments to better their individual rankings.
