Melbourne: Rohan Bopanna, former world No. 1, and his Colombian partner Nicolas Barrientos were eliminated from the Australian Open men’s doubles event after losing their first-round match to the Spanish duo of Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar on Tuesday.
The Indo-Colombian pair was defeated 5-7, 6-7 (5) in a match that lasted nearly two hours.
The 14th-seeded team started strong but struggled at critical moments, allowing the Spanish pair to take advantage and secure the win.
Bopanna and Barrientos began confidently, holding serve with ease early on.
However, Martinez and Munar began to build momentum as the match progressed, displaying solid baseline consistency and effective net play.
The turning point came late in the first set, when Martinez and Munar broke Bopanna and Barrientos’ serve to claim the opener.
In the second set, both pairs engaged in a tense battle, pushing each other to the limit.
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Martinez and Munar initially surged to a 5-3 lead and seemed poised to win as they served for the match.
However, Bopanna and Barrientos mounted a strong comeback, breaking their opponents’ serve to level the score at 5-5.
The set eventually went to a tie-break, where the Spanish pair held their nerve, winning 7-5 and sealing the match.
Bopanna, 44, had triumphed in the 2024 Australian Open men’s doubles with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden, making history by becoming the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title at the age of 43.
However, the Bopanna-Ebden partnership ended after the ATP Finals in Turin last November, prompting Bopanna’s new collaboration with Barrientos.
Earlier, India’s top-ranked singles player, Sumit Nagal, also faced a first-round exit, falling to world No. 25 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in straight sets on Monday.
