India’s top-ranked doubles player Rohan Bopanna and his partner Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada have progressed to the finals of the French Open with yet another straight sets win in the semi-final, over third seeds Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Bopanna and Dabrowski, seeded 7th at Roland Garros, have upset a second seeded pair in a row – first beating Sania Mirza and tall Croat ace Ivan Dodig – the second seeds – in the quarter-finals; the Indo-Canadian pair have yet to drop a set so far in the tournament.
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This is the best ever mixed doubles finish for both of them so far, although Bopanna is a former Grand Slam finalist in the men’s doubles. The 37-year-old and then-partner Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi, dubbed the ‘Indo-Pak Express’, lost in a two-set tiebreak to the Bryan Brothers, who are unequivocally considered the most successful men’s doubles pair of all time.
25-year-old Dabrowski and Bopanna have had quite a successful partnership, and finished in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open this year. The Indian is having a successful season on clay, and won top honours at the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters 1000 tournament this year with partner Pablo Cuevas; the two finished in Round 3 of the men’s doubles here and were the #9 seeds there.
The Indo-Canadian combine will take on Robert Farah of Colombia and partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany in the finals.
Groenfeld and Farah are unseeded at the tournament, although Farah is an immensely successful men’s doubles player with his longtime partner Juan-Sebastian Cabal; the two will contest the men’s doubles semi-final tomorrow and are seeded 16th.
This is likely to go in favour of Bopanna and Dabrowski, with the two progressing to the finals with a much tougher draw than their rivals.
