London: India suffered a major jolt in the tennis arena on Tuesday with Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashing out of the men’s doubles event in the Olympic Gammes against a wild card pair at Wimbledon.
The Indians, whose insistence to play together sparked off a selection storm ahead of the Games, bowed out of the competitions in the second round as the French duo of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet scripted a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory to break a billion hearts.
Under a heavy and overcast sky, Bhupathi and Bopanna, who who were touted as serious medal contenders, never really showed great chemistry or flair as they succumbed to the French pair in a battle that lasted one hour and 17 minutes.
It was a dismal end to the campaign of the seasoned combination as they paid a heavy price for a barrage of unforced errors, which eventually allowed the spirited Frenchmen to tilt the balance in their favour.
Bhupathi and Bopanna committed as many as 37 unforced errors, many of them at crucial junctures, to make a hash of things.
The Indian pair never got into any rhythm as they conceded the first set 3-6 in 39 minutes and then frittered away a 3-0 lead to go down 4-6 in the second set, which lasted 38 minutes.
The Indians were broken in the fourth game of the first set and could not really stage a comeback as the Frenchmen piled on the pressure with good court movement and placements.
In the second set, the Indians showed signs of recovering as they started off well to race to a 3-0 lead but could not maintain the tempo as their opponents wriggled out of the tight situation to ultimately clinch the set.
Djokovic trounces Roddick
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic fired a warning to his Olympic rivals as the world number two crushed three-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-1 in the second round on Tuesday.
While Roger Federer is the gold medal favourite after his recent Wimbledon triumph, Djokovic, a bronze medallist at the 2008 Games in Beijing, also has his sights firmly set on gold.
On the evidence of this brutal demolition of Roddick in 54 minutes under the Centre Court roof, the 25-year-old is approaching peak form again after the disappointment of losing to Federer in the Wimbledon semifinals.
Venus powers through
Meanwhile, Venus Williams underlined her desire for a fourth Olympic gold medal as the American raced into the third round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak.
Her Canadian opponent only offered brief glimpses of a challenge to the American, but aside from those, Venus made winning look supremely easy.
Following that match, it came time for Britain’s Andy Murray to take on Jarko Nieminen of Finland and the home favourite also had an easy time of it, defeating his opponent in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.
The 25-year-old, who hit 26 winners to Nieminen’s six, will face Cyprus’s Marcos Baghdatis in the last 16 in a rematch of this year’s late-night Wimbledon third round clash.
However, local fans were left disappointed when Maria Sharapova of Russia beat Briton Laura Robson 7-6 (5), 6-3. to seal her place in the second round of the competition. (Agencies)