India's Rohan Bopanna and his partner Adam Pavlasek fought tooth and nail before being knocked out from the French Open by second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten, on Sunday.
The unseeded Indo-Czech pair lost 2-6 6-7(5) to Heliovaara from Finland and British player Patten, ranked three and four in the world respectively, in the pre-quarterfinals. The second seeds zoomed to a 5-1 lead in the opening set with a double break. The Finn served out the set at love, finishing the game with an overhead smash on a return.
Bopanna made a solid start to the second set, holding without losing a point on his serve. Left-handed Patten too came out all guns blazing, sending down some measured and powerful angled serves. Bopanna and Pavlasek got an opening when at 2-3, Patten began game six with a double fault and lost another point to be down 0-30 but the Briton reeled off four straight points to avert the danger.
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There was no break of serve and eventually the second set was stretched to a tie-breaker in which the second seeds prevailed when Heliovaara found a stunning service return winner on first match point. Yuki Bhambri is also slated to play his third round with American partner Robert Galloway. They take on ninth seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King from the United States.
Meanwhile, in the Junior Championship, India's exciting prospect for future Manas Dhamne bowed out after losing 5-7 3-6 to fellow American qualifier Ronit Karki. The 17-year-old Dhamne had entered the main draw as a qualifier. He could not play to his potential on Sunday.
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