French Open: Bopanna, Bhambri to play for pre-quarterfinal berths

Paris: Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Hungarian partner Timea Babos will look to seal a pre-quarterfinal berth in the ongoing French Open when they play their last-32 clash of the mixed doubles event here on Friday.

Bopanna and Babos will square off with the Australian-Chinese team of John Peers and Zhang Shuai in their last-32 clash at Roland Garros.

In another mixed doubles clash, India’s Divij Sharan and his Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama will face Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia for a place in pre-quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, the Indian duo of Yuki Bhambri and Sharan will also aim to storm into the round-of-16 of the men’s doubles event when they take on second-seeded Austria’s Oliver Marach and Croatia’s Mate Pavic later today.

Earlier, Bhambri and Sharan bounced back from a set down to clinch a 6-3, 5-7,6-4 win over India’s Purav Raja and France’s Fabrice Martin and kick start their campaign at the French Open on a winning note.

ANI