Adelaide: India’s Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan registered a resounding straight-set win to cruise into the semifinals of the Adelaide International 1 ATP 250 men’s doubles event. However, it was the end of the road for compatriot Sania Mirza and her partner lost in the semifinals of the women’s doubles of the same tournament.
Bopanna and Ramkumar trounced the French-Monegasque duo of Benjamin Bonzi and Hugo Nys 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Both Bopanna and Ramkumar were very good at the net and never really gave their opponents of making a fight out of the match.
However, Sania and her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok endured a bad day in the office as they lost in the semifinals. Both Sania Mirza and Kichenok fought hard but lost 6-1, 2-6, 8-10 to the duo of local favourites Ashleigh Barty and Storm Sanders in 65 minutes. Barty incidentally is a former World No.1 in singles.
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The unseeded Indian pair of Bopanna and Ramkumar will now clash with the fourth-seeded Bosnian-Mexican duo of Tomislav Brkic and Santiago Gonzalez for a spot in the final. The two Indians are pairing up for the first time on the ATP tour.
Should Bopanna and Ramkumar continue their good show the two may pair up for India’s Davis Cup tie against Denmark scheduled to be played in New Delhi in March. However, it all depends on the Covid-19 situation at that time.
The two Adelaide events are tune up tournaments for the Australian Open, starting January 17 in Melbourne.