Australian Open 2018: Rohan Bopanna aims for a good show as India begins doubles campaign
The ageless Leander Paes has an uphill task ahead if he wants to add to the 2012 men’s doubles title that he won at the Australian Open as India’s doubles campaign gets under way on Thursday. The 44-year-old, who has teamed up with Purav Raja, faces the Georgian-Austrian combine of Nikoloz Basilashvilli and Andreas Haider-Maurer.
While that might present a fairly comfortable challenge, the road gets steeper with fifth seeds and former champions Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray waiting in the second round.
Raja and Paes, who are the only all-Indian pair, teamed up right before the US Open last year. It took them some time to gel together and find success but they did finish the season on a high with two Challenger titles. This year they have played just two matches heading into the season’s opening Major and lost both.
Bopanna aims to continue bright start to season
Rohan Bopanna, who is the highest ranked Indian at 19th, will be looking to continue the bright start that he made to the 2018 season alongside France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin. The Indo-French combine won a couple of matches at the Sydney International before going down narrowly to the top seeds and Wimbledon champions Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the semi-finals.
Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin are seeded `10th at the 2018 Australian Open and begin their title quest against Ryan Harrison and Vasek Pospisil. The biggest obstacle for them could come in the quarter-finals in the form of the fourth seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who are two-time Grand Slam champions.
The French duo hasn’t played together in the new season, although Herbert did reach the final at the Maharashtra Open in tandem with Gilles Simon. It will be interesting to see if their lack of play has an impact, should they meet Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin.
Divij Sharan is the fourth Indian in the men’s doubles draw and he has been seeded 16th with American Rajeev Ram. The two kick off their campaign against Viktor Troicki and Marius Copil. Sharan and Ram’s biggest danger is the top seeded team of Melo and Kubot, whom they are slated to cross swords with in the third round.
The left-handed Indian has been making waves for the last couple of months and won an ATP 250 title in Antwerp, besides the Bangalore Challenger towards the end of the season.
Sharan has picked up in 2018 from where he left and triumphed at the Canberra Challenger just last week. The win definitely boosted his confidence further and he would surely like to ride on it at the Melbourne Park.