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India's Rohan Bopanna, alongside his Hungarian partner Timea Babos, withdrew from the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open 2024 on Saturday, January 20. The duo of Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos, who were finalists at the Australian Open in 2018, were scheduled to face Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez and Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok in the opening round at Melbourne Park but opted out just before the match. Bopanna was the sole Indian player in the mixed doubles category of the Australian Open 2024. He previously reached the mixed doubles final of the same tournament with Sania Mirza in the preceding year. The reason behind Bopanna's withdrawal from the event remains undisclosed.
“Going ahead this year, I’m not sure if I’m really going to commit to play mixed doubles. Men’s doubles is the priority,” Bopanna had said earlier this month as quoted by Scroll.
At 43 years old, India's Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden, the men's doubles second seeds, have advanced to the third round of the Australian Open. They are set to compete against Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia on Sunday.
Bopanna is now the sole remaining Indian contender in the Australian Open 2024.
In earlier action on Saturday, India's N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian partner Victor Vlad Cornea were defeated by the 10th-seeded duo of Marcelo Arevalo from El Salvador and Mate Pavic from Croatia. The match ended with a 6-3, 6-3 score in the second round of the men's doubles.
Arevalo and Pavic secured an early break in Balaji's serve in the third game and later broke Cornea’s serve in the ninth game to clinch the first set. They again broke Balaji in the sixth game of the second set to secure their place in the third round.
The 2024 Australian Open marks N Sriram Balaji’s first appearance in a Grand Slam event. He, along with Cornea, had secured a first-round victory against the Italian pair of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino in straight sets.
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