Kolkata: Indian starlets Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won their respective matchess to progress to the quarter finals of the US Open 2017 in New York on Sunday. But, the former Grand Slam winner Leander Paes had to exit the tournament quite shockingly after going down 6-4 , 7-6(7), in the second round of the men’s doubles event of the tournament.
Playing against the unseeded Sorana Cirstea and and Sara Sorribes Tormo , the Indo-Chinese pair of Sania and Peng Shuai overcame a tough resistance to eventually defeat them 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(2) and progress to the quarter-finals.
The match started on a brighter note for the fourth seeded pair as they won the comfortably won the first set 6-2. However, could not keep their momentum going as the pair of Sorana-Sara bounced back in style to claim the second set.
The game saw an immense fight from both the sides in the third set, as Sania-Peng finally won the match, that lasted two hours and 15 minutes.
Sania and Peng will now face the winner of Timea Babos-Andrea Hlavackova and Su-Wei Hsieg-Monica Niculescu.
In what was a similar fortune for India in the mixed doubles, reigning French Open champions Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski progressed to the quarter-finals of the US Open 2017, defeating the Spanish-American duo of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Nicholas Monroe 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets. They will next face third seeded Hao-Ching Chan and Michael Venus for a place in the semu-finals.
But, the most shocking news of the day was the exit of the duo of Leander Paes and Purav Raja from the men’s doubles event in the second round of the US Open championships. They were defeated by the Russian duo of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in straight sets, losing 6-4, 7-6(7).
It was a disappointing performance by the 18 time Grand Slam champion which also ended India’s hope in the men’s doubles category in the US Open 2017.
There was equal disappointment for youngster Siddhant Banthia who lost 1-6, 2-6 in the boy’s singles first round at Flushing Meadows.