BOPANNA CRASHES OUT IN DOUBLES OPENER, NADAL CRUISES INTO ROUND 3 IN AUSTRALIAN OPEN

India’s Rohan Bopanna alongside Edouard Roger-Vasselin suffered an opening-round loss in the men’s doubles event of the ongoing Australian Open on Wednesday. Playing at Court 5, the wild card entries, Treat Huey of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia defeated the duo of Bopanna and Frenchman Edouard by 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2. The doubles match lasted for one hour and 48 minutes.

Bopanna and Edouard started the match at a rapid pace as they broke their opponents early in game 4 and easily captured the first set. The pair from the Philippines and Indonesia then pegged back in the tiebreak game in the second set. And in decider Huey and Rungkat continued their momentum to seal the victory.

At Rod Laver Arena, Rafael Nadal defeated the Yannick Hanfmann of Germany to cruise into round 3 at Melbourne Park. 2009 AO champion defeated German qualifier 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that lasted for two hours and 42 minutes.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion, playing just his second tournament since mid-August, did not need to move into top gear to get the job done against the world number 126, who did use his heavy groundstrokes to win some skirmishes, without ever looking likely to win the larger battle. Spaniard will next match against Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov or Benjamin Bonzi.