New York [US]: India’s Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji won their respective men’s doubles matches at the US Open 2024 tennis tournament.
Yuki Bhambri, alongside his French partner Albano Olivetti, won in straight sets while N Sriram Balaji and Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi emerged triumphant in a gruelling encounter to advance to the round of 32 on Wednesday, as per Olympics.com.
Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti stormed into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over wildcards Patrik Trhac and Ryan Seggerman of the USA in 77 minutes.
Bhambri and Olivetti were off to a terrific start. The Indo-French duo won a break in the fourth game and won all their service games to take the opening set 6-3.
Banking on the momentum, the Bhambri-Olivetti pair took another early break in the second set and continued their stronghold on serves to wrap up the set and match.
N Sriram Balaji and Guido Andreozzi, meanwhile, beat New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Mexico’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 5-7, 6-1, 7(12)-6(10) in two hours and 36 minutes.
The opening set turned out to be a very close affair, with both pairs giving nothing away. In the sixth game, Marcus and Miguel had two break points but squandered the chance as the set remained at 3-3.
Just ahead of a tie-break, Marcus and Miguel won a break in the 12th game to edge out the set 7-5.
However, Balaji and Andreozzi made a strong comeback in the second set. They broke their opponents’ serves twice in the opening three games to go 3-0 up. They eventually closed the set 6-1 to head into a decider.
In the final set, Balaji and Andreozzi had a great opportunity to seal the match, having won a break in the ninth game. However, as the duo were serving for the match, Marcus and Miguel broke back instantly to take the match into a tie-breaker.
In a hard-fought tie-break, Balaji and Andreozzi eventually won 12-10 to progress to the next round, as per Olympics.com.
Besides Balaji and Bhambri, veteran Rohan Bopanna will also be in action in the men’s doubles event at the US Open 2024.
Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden, seeded second in the tournament, will face Dutch duo Robin Haase and Sander Arends in the opening round on Thursday.
Rohan Bopanna will also play in the mixed doubles event with Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia.
Sumit Nagal was also scheduled to play in the men’s doubles tournament however his partner Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan has ruled himself out of the US Open 2024 due to medical reasons.