Bopanna, Mergea make first-round doubles exit at Swiss Indoors

The Indo-Romanian pair lost 6-4 1-6 8-10 to Austria’s Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares in an hour and two minutes.

Rohan Bopanna

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea lost to Austria’s Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares in the opening round of the men’s doubles event of the Swiss Indoors here, to slump to their second straight first round exit. Bopanna and Mergea lost to Peya and Soares 6-4 1-6 8-10 in just an hour and two minutes yesterday in the 1.5 million euro tournament on the indoor courts of the St Jakobshalle.

Bopanna and Mergea had earlier made a first round exit from Vienna Open last week. Bopanna and Mergea started off well and broke their rivals once to pocket the opening set.

But the Indo-Romanian pair seemed to have lost the momentum and were completely outplayed by Peya and Soares, who broke their opponents twice in the second set to draw parity in the match. The decider went to the super tie-break, where Peya and Soares kept their nerves to clinch the encounter and avenge their loss in the Stuttgart Open final in June.