French Open: India's Rohan Bopanna reaches Roland Garros men's doubles semifinal for the first time

Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Middelkoop overcame a first set deficit against Lloyd Glasspool and Heliovaara in front of an electric Court Simonne-Mathieu crowd on Monday to make it to the men’s doubles semi-final at the French Open.

The Indo-Dutch team overcame their unseeded opponents in two hours and four minutes, winning 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-3) to go through.

The win meant that Bopanna has reached the men’s doubles semi-final at Roland Garros for the first time – he’s reached two Wimbledon semi-finals in the past and had reached the 2010 US Open final. But for Middelkoop, this is the first time he has gotten this far at a Grand Slam.

In the pre-quarterfinals, the duo had to save five match points before overcoming second-seeds Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic.

On Monday night, the 16th seeds had to work hard again as Glasspool was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set.

Bopanna however, raised his game by playing three excellent points – including an inside-out backhand return winner – to get the break back and level the scores in the third set.

In the tiebreak, the British-Finnish pair raced to a 3-0 lead before Bopanna-Middelkoop turned the screws in the tiebreaker, incredibly winning the next 10 points in a row to storm through to the semi-finals.

They’ll next face 12th seeded pair of Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer and El Salvadorian Marcelo Arevalo for a place in the final.

Bopanna’s sole Grand Slam title in his career so far, incidentally, came at Roland Garros, where he won the mixed doubles title in 2017 with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski.

Earlier in the tournament, Sania Mirza’s mixed doubles campaign came to an end in the second round but the Indian legend is still in contention in women’s doubles with Lucie Hradecka. She is in action on Tuesday against Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.