India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner Pablo Cuevas came from behind to upset seventh seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez and a seal a quarter-final berth at the Rome Masters on Thursday.
Bopanna and Cuevas rallied to beat the Spaniards 4-6, 7-6 (7), 10-8 in a gruelling second-round match at the clay-court tournament, lasting for an hour and 39 minutes. It was a big victory for the Monte Carlo Masters winners as the Spanish pair are a force to reckon with on clay, and are the defending champions at the French Open.
The Indo-Uruguayan pair got three break chances, but could convert none and lost their serve once in the opening set. But they bounced back in the second, coming on top of a tough tie breaker and then sealed the win in the super tie break with a narrow margin of 10-8.
Very long argument on #Bopanna/#Cuevas' match point vs #Lopez/Lopez: Feliciano was sure the serve was out, Marc was too [1/3]
— Raoul Ruberti (@raoulruberti) May 18, 2017
Marc Lopez refused to leave the court for 5 minutes, everyone including Bernardes had already left, crew was already dismantling the court.
— Raoul Ruberti (@raoulruberti) May 18, 2017
However, the match was not without controversy. The Spanish pair argued that the match point – an ace – was invalid as the serve was out, according to reports from Rome. But the umpire upheld the win and the Spaniards reportedly refused to shake hands with Bopanna and Cuevas.
They will take on the fourth seeded French pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the last eight.
Meanwhile, in the WTA event, India’s Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova, seeded third, advanced to the quarter-finals. They will face Sara Errani and Martina Trevisan for a spot in the semis.