Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza bowed out of the Cincinnati Open after losing their quarter-final and semi-final with respective partners in the men’s and women’s doubles events.
The seventh seeded Indo-Croatian team of Bopanna and Ivan Dodig lost to the second seeded Polish-Brazilian team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.
In the women’s doubles, the fourth seeded Indo-Chinese pair of Mirza and Shuai Peng lost to the Romanian-Taiwanese pair of Moncia Niculescu and Su-Wei Hsieh.
Kubot and Melo defeated Bopanna and Dodig 6-1, 6-7(5), 10-7 in an hour and 35 minutes. Bopanna and Dodig started off on a poor note, managing to win only 38% of their first serve points in the opening set to their opponents’ significantly higher 81%. They were broken twice in the set even as they were unable to convert the two break points that came their way in the set.
Bopanna and Dodig, however, bounced back just as strongly in the second set to level the match after winning the set in the tie-break. In the match tie-break, both teams gave it their all before the higher-seeded team clinched the win with a three-point margin.
Mirza’s wait for second title continues
The unseeded pair of Niculescu and Hsieh defeated Mirza and Peng in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(6).
Mirza and Peng had seven break point chances on their opponents’ serve, but could only convert one. On the other hand, they saved three of the five break points they faced on their serve.
With this loss, Mirza’s bid to win her second doubles title in the 2017 season continues. Her sole doubles title this year came at the Brisbane Open in January, in which she had partnered American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
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