In a huge upset, gold medal favourites and top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri were knocked out of the Asian Games after being stunned by lower-ranked Sergey Fomin and Khumoyun Sultanov from Uzbekistan, here on Monday.
Bhambri struggled with his serve and strokes in the latter part of the match while the Uzbek players raised their game against their superior opponents to walk away with a 2-6 6-3 10-6 win in the second round.
The defeat will rankle the Indian pair all the more as Bopanna is a top-10 player in the doubles and Bhambri too is ranked among the top-100. The Uzbeks are not even in the top-300.
Serving at 3-4, 30-all in the second set, Bhambri served a double fault to go down by a break point. A wide backhand from Bhambri’s racquet handed the Uzbeks the crucial break. Sultanov made no mistake in serving out the set by consistently putting in his first serves. In the super-tie breaker, the Uzbeks raced to a 3-0 lead and soon the Indians were down 5-1. The Uzbeks pulled off a stunning service return winner to make it 6-1 on Bopanna’s serve.
BHAMBRI COULD NOT SUPPORT BOPANNA ENOUGH
India’s tennis coach, Zeeshan Ali, expressed disappointment with the performance of Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri, stating that Bhambri didn’t provide the needed support in their match. Despite their strong rankings, they couldn’t capitalize on crucial moments, with missed break-point opportunities. Ali credited the Uzbekistan players’ outstanding performance. Bopanna, who recently retired from Davis Cup, is competing in his last Asian Games at 43. Both Bopanna and Bhambri will participate in mixed doubles. Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale won their opening mixed doubles match.
Additionally, Indian pairs in men’s and women’s doubles achieved success, advancing to further rounds.
WINNING DAY FOR SINGLES PLAYERS
Top singles Ankita Raina was off to a flying start while Bhosale struggled past lower-ranked Aruzhan Sagandikova to move into the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals.
