India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski won the mixed doubles title at the French Open on Thursday, with a 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 win over and Robert Farah (Colombia) and Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Germany) in the final.
With the win, Bopanna became only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title.
Dabrowski blinked first as she lost serve on the deciding point with Farah easily smashing past Bopanna on an overhead volley, set up after a rally.
Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who celebrated her 22nd birthday last Sunday, then made it 3-1 with an easy hold.
Bopanna, feeling the pressure, hit a forehand long to be be down by two breakpoints in the fifth game but managed to save both with the Canadian showing good skills at the net.
Farah though remained solid in his service game, never allowing the seventh seeds to put pressure on him.
Serving at 2-4, Dabrowski felt the heat and was broken at love when she hit a backhand long. It allowed Groenefeld to serve out the set and she did it with remarkable ease.
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.
It only got better for them when Farah was also broken in the sixth game, putting Bopanna and the Canadian ahead 4-2.
Dabrowski held her serve for the first time in the match. The German hit a forehand on to the net on Bopanna’s return to be down by a set point. She saved that but lost the deciding point and it was one set apiece.
In the match tie-breaker, Bopanna and Dabrowski opened up a 3-0 lead but lost five points in a row to trail 3-5.
At 5-5, Farah in his attempt to pick up a half volley, ended up being hit on his right eye on the rebound. After a see-saw battle the Indo-Canadian pair emerged champions.
This is the first Grand Slam title for both, and the first final for 25-year-old Dabrowski. Bopanna has reached on major final before, when he and Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Qureshi finished as runners-up in the men’s doubles at the 2010 US Open. Bopanna joins Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza as the only Indians to lift Grand Slam titles.
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