Rohan Bopanna with his Hungarian partner advances to mixed doubles quarterfinals at Australian Open

Melbourne, January 23: Star Indian shuttler Rohan Bopanna with his Hungarian partner Timea Babos on Tuesday advanced to the mixed doubles quarterfinals at the Australian Open which is being held in Melbourne.

 

Notably, Rohan Bopanna with his Hungarian partner Timea Babos defeated USA's Vania King and Croatia's Franko Skugor by 6-4, 6-4. Bopanna and Babos got a crucial break in both the sets. The Indo-Hungarian duo also broke many services of the opposition which gave them direct benefits and sealed the match.

The fifth-seeded pair of Bopanna and Babos will face the unseeded pair of Colombia's Juan Sebastian Cabal and USA's Abigail Spears in the last eight. Earlier, in the tournament, Bopanna and Babos defeated the unseeded Australian pairing of Ellen Perez and Andrew Whittington 6-2, 6-4 in a first-round mixed doubles match that lasted less than an hour.

 

On the other side, Cabal and Spears had won the mixed doubles title last year after defeating India's Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig in the final. Interestingly, Bopanna had reached the quarterfinals at all the four Slams last year, losing three and winning only at the French Open, where he won the title with his then partner Gabriela Dabrowski.

Importantly, Rohan Bopanna is now the only Indian in title contention at Melbourne Park after Leander Paes, Purav Raja, Divij Sharan and Bopanna himself were defeated in the third round of the men's doubles.