French Open: Bopanna & Ebden seal semifinal spot

Paris: India’s Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden entered the men’s doubles semifinals of the French Open here on Wednesday. They beat last year’s finalists Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in three sets at Court Suzanne-Lenglen. 

Australian Open champions Bopanna and Ebden won 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1. The Indo-Australian pair, seeded second  here, had lost to the Belgian duo, seeded 10th in this event, at Indian Wells earlier this season.  

Next up for the 44-year-old Bopanna and the 36-year-old Ebden are Italy’s Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a rematch of the Australian Open final. They lost their only previous clay court meeting to the Italians in Rome just a few weeks back. 

The Italian pair, seeded 11th, reached the semifinals by upsetting the third-seeded combine of American Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a quarterfinal encounter lasting one hour and 56 minutes.

Bopanna and Ebden won the first set tie-breaker by forcing three errors from Gille and Vliegen. In the second set, the Belgians effected a crucial break in the 11th game with a fine forehand winner to win the set 7-5.

In the decider, Bopanna and Ebden broke the service of their opponents in the second game and held their serve again to go 3-0 up. They again broke serve in the sixth game to win the set 6-3 eventually.