Melbourne [Australia], January 19 : The pair of Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden dazzled at Court No. 3 on Friday as the duo moved past John Millman and Edward Winter to reach the third round of men's doubles event at the Australian Open 2024.
In a brisk encounter on Friday, Bopanna and Ebden effortlessly registered a straight-set 6-2, 6-4 victory over the wildcard pair.
The seasoned team was unbeatable in every aspect, but they were especially strong in first serves, winning 80 per cent of them versus Millman and Winter's 68 per cent. The pair also hit 17 winners to their opponents' 11 and had the fastest serve of the match at 203 kmph.
In the opening round of the season's first Grand Slam, the Indian-Australian duo were asked all sorts of questions by James Duckworth and Marc Polmans. They defeated the Australian pair by 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (10-2) to seal their birth in the next round.
Both pairs were evenly matched across all facets of the game, but the duo of Bopanna and Ebden clinched 114 points in comparison to the Australian pair's tally of 110. Even in terms of gaining points from service, the Indian-Australian duo pulled out 80 service points while the Australian pair managed to clinch 71 points from service.
Elsewhere, Nikola Cacic and Denys Molchanov upset top seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek on Friday, winning 6-4, 6-7(8), 7-6(10-7) to go to the third round.
After two hours and forty-nine minutes of intense drama, Cacic and Molchanov prevailed in the Match Tie-break despite losing two match points in the second-set tie-break.
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