PARIS, June 6: India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden crashed out of the French Open after going down to Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the semifinals here on Thursday.
The second seeded Indo-Australian pair lost 5-7, 6-2, 2-6 to the eleventh seeded Italians.
The Australian Open winning pair overcame the challenge posed by Brazilians Marcelo Zormann and Orlando Luz 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the opening round.
They followed that triumph with a win over the Indo-Italian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela 6-7 [2-7], 6-3, 7-6 [10-8]) in the following round.
In the quarterfinals, Bopanna and his partner got the better of the Belgian duo of Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen 7-6 [7-3], 5-7, 6-1.
SWIATEK WINS
Iga Swiatek eliminated Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open semi-finals Thursday and stretched her winning streak at Roland Garros to 20 matches.
The top-ranked Swiatek is trying to earn her fourth championship in five years in Paris and can become the first woman with three in a row here since Justine Henin from 2007-09.
Swiatek improved to 11-1 overall against No. 3 seed Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, and has defeated her at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament three years in a row, including in the 2022 final and last year’s quarterfinals.
In Saturday’s title match, Swiatek will face either unseeded 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia or No. 12 Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
Swiatek is 4-0 in major finals so far, and she has been at her dominant best for most of the past two weeks.
Putting aside a three-set, second-round victory over four-time major champion Naomi Osaka when she was forced to save a match point, Swiatek has ceded a total of merely 17 games in her other five matches.
ZVEREV REACHES 4TH CONSECUTIVE SEMIFINALS
Alexander Zverev beat Alex de Minaur 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Wednesday night to reach the French Open semifinals for the fourth year in a row.His win moves him into a matchup against two-time Roland Garros runner-up Casper Ruud on Friday.
The fourth-seeded Zverev is competing in Paris as a court proceeding continues in his home country of Germany, connected to accusations of physical abuse by a former girlfriend of his. Zverev said he never thought it was a possibility he wouldn’t be able to play in the French Open because of the court case.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who won the Australian Open in January, against No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, who owns two major trophies. None of the four men left in the bracket has ever won the French Open, and this will be the first title match in Paris since 2004 without at least one of Rafael Nadal, Djokovic or Roger Federer. (PTI)
