Bopanna-Ebden pair advances to men’s doubles third round

Second-seeded Indo-Australian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden barely broke a sweat in a straight-set victory over local hopes John Millman and Edward Winter to enter the men’s doubles third round of the Australian Open here on Friday.
Bopanna and Ebden strolled past the wildcards 6-2 6-4 in a second-round match at Court 3 that lasted a little over one hour.
The 43-year-old Bopanna and Ebden dominated their rivals in all areas. They won 80 percent of the first serve against 68 percent by Millman and Winter.
The duo also recorded the fastest serve of the match – 203 kmph, and they also nailed 17 winners against their opponents’ 11.
In the first-round match on Thursday, Bopanna and Ebden, the 2023 US Open finalists, had beaten another Australian pair of James Duckworth and Marc Polmans 7-6 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (10).
In the third round, Bopanna and Ebden will face 14th seeded Dutch-Croatian team of Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic.
Earlier, another Indian, Sriram Balaji, entered the second round of the Australian Open men’s doubles in the company of his Romanian partner Victor Cornea.
The Balaji-Corena duo defeated the Italian duo of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
India’s singles challenge in the season’s first Grand Slam ended on Thursday following Sumit Nagal’s loss to China’s Juncheng Shang in the second round.