London: Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna staved off stiff resistance from Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury before advancing to the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals while India’s singles challenge ended at the London Olympics with the defeat of Vishnu Vardhan, on Monday.
The seventh-seeded Indian pair, who were in the news for challenging AITA’s diktat, recorded a hard-earned 7-6 (4) 6-7 (4) 8-6 win over the Belarusian pair in the marathon first round match, which lasted for two hours and 26 minutes.
They will now fight it out with the French combo of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet.
Vardhan out of singles
Earlier, 304-ranked Vardhan fought hard but could not make the most of the lucky opportunity he got to compete in singles as he lost 3-6, 2-6 to world number 77 Blaz Kavcic.
Vardhan had entered the men’s singles draw when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to a right hamstring injury.
Bhupathi and Bopanna, who both had refused to play with Leander Paes, were stretched to their limits and they had to dig deep into their reserves to edge past the gritty Belarusian combination.
After the first two sets were stretched to tie-breakers, the Indian team got the crucial break in the 13th game of the decisive third set and then served out the match in the next game.
Young Vardhan lost to his Slovakian rival in one hour and 12 minutes. It was the third meeting between the two players and the Slovakian extended his lead to 3-0.
It was a straight-set defeat but Vardhan did push his rival and made him earn his points.
With this defeat, India’s challenge has ended in the men’s singles as Somdev Devvarman had bowed out after losing to Finn Jarkko Nieminen on Sunday.
Vardhan wass slated to play in the men’s doubles with Leander Paes late on Monday.
Federer has it easy
Top-seeded Roger Federer made only a brief appearance on Centre Court, beating Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour to reach the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament.
Routine wins have been elusive at the Olympics for Federer, who is playing in the games for the fourth time and still seeking his first singles medal. He was pushed to three sets in the opening round but he easily eliminated Benneteau, who held a two-set lead against Federer at Wimbledon a month ago before losing.
Federer was also scheduled to play a doubles match later in the day; he is defending doubles champion along with Stanislas Wawrinka.
Women’s top seed Victoria Azarenka made tough work of her first-round win despite storming to an early lead.
Belarusian Azarenka, who needs to win gold to guarantee retaining the world number one ranking, dropped the second set to Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu before regaining her pose to take the match 6-1 3-6 6-1.
American Venus Williams, aiming to become the first tennis player to win four Olympic golds, made easy work of her first-round match against number nine seed and French Open finalist Sara Errani.
Venus dispatched the Italian 6-3 6-1 in just over an hour before chanting ‘U-S-A, U-S-A’ with a delighted Court Two crowd. At the same time on Court One, her sister and doubles partner Serena advanced to the third round with a 6-2 6-3 win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska.
Roddick to face Djoker
Andy Roddick set up an Olympic Games clash with world number two Novak Djokovic as the three-time Wimbledon runner-up defeated Martin Klizan 7-5, 6-4 in his first round match.
The former world number one Roddick will meet 2011 Wimbledon winner Djokovic for a place in the last 16.
Roddick knows that the Serb will not be an easy opponent, calling him the best player in the last two years. (Agencies)