Rohan Bopanna-Florin Mergea enter third round at Wimbledon

Rohan Bopanna

Wimbledon, July 3 (IANS)

The Indian-Romanian tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea earned a straight sets victory against the Brazilian-Argentine pair of T. Bellucci and G Duran 7-5, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) to enter the third round of the men's doubles event of the Wimbledon Championships here on Friday.

The ninth-seeded pair outclassed their second round opponents in two hours and 11 minutes.

The match got off to a cracking start with both the pairs hitting several aces. Despite Bopanna-Mergea serving four double faults compared to three by Bellucci-Duran, the Indian-Romanian pair gained a crucial break point and later served perfectly to take the opening set 7-5.

Bellucci-Duran came back strongly in the second set breaking their opponents once, but the ninth seeds were good enough to force the set to the tie-break.

Bopanna-Mergea played brilliantly to win the tie-break 7-5 and go two sets up.

The third set saw an even better performance from Bopanna-Mergea where they served six aces. But Bellucci-Duran came back strongly in the third set serving three aces to go hand in hand with their opponent. The set finally went into tie-break.

Bopanna-Mergea held on comfortably to serve brilliantly to take crucial points to win the tie-break 7-5 and thus seal the match and book a place in the third round.

The Indian-Romanian tennis pair will next face the winner of the match between Lukasz Kubot-Max Mirnyi and Marcel Granollers-Marc Lopez.