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Indian te nnis star Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden from Australia finally got off the mark at the French Open 2024. The Indo-Australian pair took the Brazilian duo of Orlando Luz and Marcelo Zormann 7-5, 4-6 at the Court 5. Bopanna and Ebden were slated to kick off their Roland Garros campaign on May 31 against Emil Ruusuvuori and Márton Fucsovics before the duo pulled out of the Doubles' event after the fixture was postponed due to rain.
Then the Australian Open champions were slated to take on the pair of India's Sumit Nagal and Sebastian Ofner of Austria. But this match was also postponed with continued rains leading this singles pair to withdraw before Bopanna and Ebden were slotted to face Orlando Luz and Marcelo Zormann.
Bopanna and Ebden beat Luz and Zorman 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in Round 1
Coming back to the Round 1 clash, the number 2 seeded pair dropped the first game but won two quick ones to take a 4-1 lead against the Brazilians. But soon the Luz-Zorman pairing stitched up a comeback to level the score before going up 4-5. Here the experienced Grand Slam-winning pair of Bopanna and Ebden won three straight games to clinch the first set 7-5.
In the second set, the battle got intense with both pairs trading the first few games before the Brazilians took a 3-5 lead as Matthew Ebden had a game to forget which concluded with a rare double fault. Despite this disappointing game, Bopanna and Ebden fought hard to hold the game before losing Set 2 4-6.
The third set saw the Indo-Aussie pair assert their dominance after a streaky start with the scoreboard saying 2-2. Bopanna and Ebden combined well to stitch up two consecutive games before the Brazilian pair clinched two games one of their own. But the second-seeded pair clinched the next game to make the score 6-4 and win the match.
After this Men's Doubles clash, Rohan Bopanna will be in action with Russia's Veronika Kudermetova to take on Andrea Vavasorri and Liudmila Samsonova in a mixed doubles first-round match on Sunday, June 2. The match will be played at Court 5 at Stade Roland Garros in Paris.
