Rohan Bopanna opened his grass court season with new partner Nicolas Mahut with a dominating 6-1, 6-4 win over Robin Hasse and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the Ricoh Open here on Wednesday.
The top-seeded Indo-French pair needed just 50 minutes to dispatch their unseeded rivals in the opening round of the euro 635,645 ATP 250 event.
Bopanna, who secured a direct entry for Rio Olympics courtesy his top-10 ranking, began his partnership with the world number one player on a positive note.
Bopanna had to pair with Mahut since the Indian’s Romanian partner Florin Mergea has started his Olympic preparations and has partnered Horia Tecau for the tournaments in the build up to the Rio Games.
Bopanna is yet to reveal his choice of partner for the men’s doubles event at the Rio Games. He can choose either Leander Paes or Saketh Myneni.
Bopanna and Mahut, who had lost the world’s longest singles match to John Isner in the first round of 2010 Wimbledon championships, did not face a single breakpoint in the match and broke their rivals thrice.
They next face Giles Muller and Frederik Nielsen, who knocked out Marcelo Demoliner and Nicholas Monroe 6-3, 6-3 in their opening round.
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