French Open 2016 | Bopanna and Mergea sail into second round

ByArun S Kaimal, SportsCafe Editor

05/25/2016

Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea got off to a comfortable start in the French Open on Wednesday, winning in straight sets to book their places in the second round. The Indo-Romanian pair beat their unseeded French opponents, Alexandre Sidorenko and Stephane Robert, 6-2, 6-2 on the Paris clay

The sixth seeded Bopanna-Mergea looked to be in control from the first ball toss of the day. The duo had a good clay court season coming into Paris, finishing runners-up in Madrid and losing in the semis of the Rome Masters, and continued in the same vein at the Roland Garros.

The first set was wrapped up in no time by the Indo-Romanian pair, who broke the French team twice and hit the only winner of the set. Sidorenko-Robert had just one break point in the first set, and they failed to convert it as well.

The second set had a similar theme to the first, with Bopanna-Mergea breaking the opponent’s serve twice in four attempts, and serving well enough to not give a single look at their own serve. In the end, they went on to win the match 6-2, 6-2.

They will next play the winner of the match between Greggoire Berrere-Quentin Halys and Dudi Sela-Denys Molchanov in the next round.