French veteran Nicolas Mahut’s joy on ascending the doubles World No. 1 ranking was short-lived. After winning his first match as the numero uno player yesterday with Indian ace Rohan Bopanna at the Ricoh Open in s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, the Indo-French duo could not keep their good run going.
On Thursday, the top seeds bowed out of the quarter-finals after succumbing to a 3-6, 5-7 defeat to the unseeded pair of Frederik Nielsen and Gilles Muller.
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Following this loss, Mahut is all set to concede his No. 1 ranking to Jamie Murray of Great Britain who won the Australian Open in January, partnering Bruno Soares.
As for Bopanna, who returned to the top-10 this week, he was forced to begin the grasscourt season without his usual partner Florin Mergea as the latter has opted to play with his Romanian compatriot Horia Tecau in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.
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Bopanna and Mahut were broken thrice in the 76-minute quarter-final match on Thursday and managed to convert just one out of the five break point opportunities they got.
Earlier in their opening round, they had posted a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Robin Haase.
The Indian had a commendable performance on grass last year, winning the ATP Stuttgart title and reaching the final of the Halle tournament. At Wimbledon, he and Mergea made it as far as the semi-finals.
Singles update:
Meanwhile, the Ricoh Open witnessed some upsets in women’s singles too. Second seed Jelena Jankovic and fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko both bowed out in their second round matches. While the former World No. 1 Jankovic was edged 7-6(2), 1-6, 4-6 by the 120th ranked Evgeniya Rodina, the 19-year-old Ostapenko fell 5-7, 2-6 to Kateryna Kozlova.
On the men’s side, the seeds sailed smoothly. Top seed and former two-time champion David Ferrer beat Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-4 to move into the quarter-finals. Third seed Ivo Karlovic thundered down 20 aces to prevail 7-6(4), 7-6(5) over wildcard Igor Sijsling.
