Bopanna-Shapovalov make early exit from Western & Southern Open

New York, August 24

Back in action after five months, Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov succumbed to Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the opening round of the Western and Southern Open men’s doubles event here.

Bopanna and Shapovalov lost 4-6 6-7(1) to the 2019 US Open runners-up pair in the first round match of the USD 42,22,190 hard court tournament, which is a build-up to the US Open.

It was the first competitive match for Bopanna since the Davis Cup tie against Croatia in March, alongside veteran Leander Paes.

Bopanna has been pairing with Shapovalov consistently since the Indian Wells Masters last year.

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“It was indeed a very close match. I am very satisfied, to be honest, with the way we played, especially after five months, coming straight into a tournament. (We were) playing against a very good team out there,” said Bopanna.

“I thought I would be little rusty but played pretty well, we had some chances. We lost three deuce points in a row when they served at 2-3 and then on my serve at 3-3, and when they served at 4-3, so those three games we had deuce points but they did not go our way,” he said.

“The second set was again close, we hung in there but in tie-break they were the better team. Overall, satisfied with the start nevertheless. We will be practising for the next few days for the US Open,” he said.

The US Open starts August 31 in New York. PTI