India’s tennis veteran Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji lost to the French pair of Gael Monfils and Edouard Roger-Vasselin by 5-7, 2-6 in consecutive sets in men’s doubles at Paris Olympics 2024and failed to reach the second round of the event.
With this loss, India’s challenge in tennis at the Paris Olympics came to an end. Earlier, the 26-year-old Sumit Nagal lost to Frenchman Corentin Moutlet in men’s singles event.
The struggle of Indian duo
The Indian pair failed to perform on the big stage, struggling with an opening set itself. The duo went 2-4 down after conceding an early break. They made a comeback and didn’t let the grip of the game go so easily. They stood back to make the score 5-5. The French duo earned their second break to take the opening set in 42 minutes just when the odds were looking for a tie.
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The second set was lopsided with 44-year-old Bopanna and Balaji dropping their serve early. Monflis and Vasselin took their team to the second round with a dominant performance against the Indian duo ending India’s tennis challenge at the Paris Olympics 2024.
An exuberant French display
The French pair took just an hour and 16 minutes to secure a spot in the second round. Monfils lived up to expectations as the French player with most wins in Grand Slam history. The French pair of Vasselin and Monflis will now be up against the winner of the doubles match between Danil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin up against Kevin Kraweitz and Tim Puetz.
Long wait continues
India have won only one Olympic medal in tennis when Leander Paes bagged a bronze in the 1996 Atlanta Games. It came 72 years after India made their Olympic debut in tennis in 1924.
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