Paris: India’s top men’s doubles stars Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna won their respective second-round matches in the French Open here on Friday.
Sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea won their second-round men’s doubles French Open match, beating French pair Gregoire Barrere and Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4 here on Friday.
Sixteenth seeds Leander Paes and Marcin Matkowski later produced another dominating performance to earn a 6-4, 6-3 win in their second-round match against Julian Knowle and Florian Mayer.
Bopanna-Mergea took a big headstart in the first set, jumping to a 4-1 lead. They maintained their dominance to reach 5-2 and were in total control as they claimed the first set 6-3 on Court 6.
The Indo-Romanian pair maintained ascendancy, breaking their opponents’ first service game to quickly jump 2-0 up. But they were pegged back with the French pair breaking back immediately to 2-2.
Bopanna-Mergea converted three of the eight break points received in the second set to ultimately claim the second set 6-4.
They won 67 of the total 121 points played, committing seven unforced errors as compared to two by their opponents.
But conversion of break points turned crucial as Bopanna-Mergea won four of nine break points opposed to just two of four by Barrere-Halys.
Bopanna-Mergea outclassed Frenchmen Stephane Robert and Alexandre Sidorenko 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.
Later, Paes-Matkowski produced another dominating performance to earn a comfortable victory.
