French Open 2016 | Bopanna-Mergea exit in quarters
Sixth seeded pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea bowed out in the quarter-final of the 2016 French Open on Wednesday after losing to Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in straight-sets. The third seeds eased past the Indo-Romanian pair 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 15 minutes to enter the last four.
Bopanna and Mergea, who defeated Brian Baker and Marcus Daniell in the pre-quarters, found a tough match in the last eight after running into the defending champions. Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo trailed the Indo-Romanian pair 2-3 in the head-to-head record heading into the match, but showed no signs of trailing the pair in the match itself.
In the first set, both the pairs started well, matching each other point for point in the first two games. Then Bopanna and Mergea escaped a scare in the third game after Dodig and Melo almost broke through. The Indo-Romanian pair saved the break four times in the game, and finally won it to take a 2-1 lead. The deadlock continued in the set till the seventh game, and the defending champions broke the service of the sixth seeds to go into a 4-3 lead. Dodig and Melo held their serve in the next game and won the set 6-4.
The second set followed a similar pattern as the first with Bopanna and Mergea looking comfortable in the initial stages before surrendering the advantage. In the third game of the set, the sixth seeds lost the initiative and allowed the defending champions to take the lead. Both the pairs held there serves from there on and Dodig-Melo took the set with an identical score as the first. Ā
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