Indian teams up with Canadian Dabrowski to emerge mixed doubles champs in French Open
Paris: Rohan Bopanna became the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title by winning the French Open mixed doubles title at the Roland Garros here Thursday.
Bopanna along with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski defeated the German-Colombia combo of Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah in the final 2-6, 6-2, 12-10. Incidentally this was the Indian’s first Major tennis title. The seventh seeds save two match points en route to their memorable title triumph.
In the super tie-break, Bopanna and Dabrowski were twice in danger of losing the match. But they saved both and then they had two match points at 11-9. The wasted the first, but sealed the title on the second.
This was only the second time in his career that Bopanna had reached the summit clash of a Grand Slam. In 2010, he had made the final of US Open with Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq-Qureshi and lost to the legendary Bryan brothers – Bob and Mike.
Only Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza have won Grand Slam doubles titles.
Dabrowski blinked first as she lost serve on the deciding point of her first service game in the first set with Farah easily smashing past Bopanna on an overhead volley, set up after a rally. It became 3-1 when Groenefeld held her serve. Down 2-4, Dabrowski again lost her serve when she hit a backhand long and then Groenefeld easily held serve to close out the first set comfortably.
Bopanna began the second set with a double fault but managed to hold his serve even as he argued with the chair umpire on a line call.
The desperation was palpable and it had a debilitating effect on the seventh seeds as Dabrowski yet again failed to hold serve early in the second set.
However, Bopanna and his Canadian partner got a fresh lease of life when Groenefeld dropped serve at love in the next game. That was the break the Indo-Canadian duo needed and it gave them a fresh lease of life.
It only got better for them when Farah was also broken in the sixth game which gave Bopanna and Dabrowski a 4-2 lead. Dabrowski held her serve for the first time in the match and then the German lost her serve for the second successive time as the Bopanna and Dabrowski made it one set apiece.
In the tie-breaker, Bopanna and Dabrowski opened up a 3-0 lead but lost five points in a row to trail 3-5. However they came back strongly and played the crucial points well to emerge champions.
Other Grand Slam winners
Leander Paes 18 (8 doubles, 10 mixed doubles)
Mahesh Bhupathi 12 (4 doubles, 8 mixed doubles)
Sania Mirza 6 (3 doubles, 3 mixed doubles)
PTI
