Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, on Monday, progressed to the men’s doubles quarter-finals at the 2024 French Open.
The Australian Open winners, who had received a walkover in the second round, beat the Indo-Mexican pair of N Sriram Balaji and Miguel Reyes-Varela (2) 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8).
Despite playing the second seeds, the scratch pair of Balaji and Reyes-Varela went toe to toe with their more fancied opponents in the first set and forced a tie-break. The Indo-Mexican pair dropped just two points in the tie-breaker to take the first set.
Bopanna and Ebden fought back in the second set and broke their opponents’ serve in the fourth game. Balaji and Reyes-Varela had three break-point opportunities in the seventh game but failed to make the most of them.
The second seeds wrapped up the second set to force a third and deciding set.
Neither pair dropped their serve in the final set as the match went to another tie-break. Both pairs lost a point each on their serve before Bopanna and Ebden brought up two match points at 9-7. The pair got the job done at the second time of asking to seal their place in the quarter-finals.
Bopanna and Ebden will next face the 10th seeded Belgian pair of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
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