Bopanna-Shapovalov enter Italian Open quarterfinals

Rome, September 17

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Canadian Denis Shapovalov stunned top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia in a hard-fought second round encounter to enter the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Italian Open tennis tournament here on Thursday.

The unseeded Indo-Canadian pair defeated their fancied rivals 6-3 3-6 10-5 in a round of 16 tie of the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Bopanna and Shapovalov will next face French combination of Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

Bopanna and Shapovalov had defeated the pair of Argentina’s Guido Pella and Chile’s Cristian Garin 6-4 6-4 to move into the round of 16 here.

The Indo-Canadian duo had bowed out of the men’s doubles quarterfinals in the just-concluded US Open, losing 5-7 5-7 to the pair of Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania. PTI