Sydney Int’l: Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin bow out in semis

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the World No. 1 team, defeated the Indo-French pair 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won 64 points in a closely-fought semifinal.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who joined forces for the 2018 season, fought their hearts out before losing the semifinal of the ATP Sydney International to the World No. 1 team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, here on Thursday.

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin, the fourth seed, lost the closely-fought semifinal 6-4, 5-7, 10-8 in an hour and 29 minutes. Overall, the winners won 70 points, while the runner-up accounted for 64.

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The teams broke each other twice in the contest.

Kubot and Melo will now fight it out with Germany’s Jan- Lennard Struff and Romanian Viktor Troicki, who toppled second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6 (5), 6-1.

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It was the last tournament in build up to the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open. Bopanna had played the season-opening Tata Open Maharashtra with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in Pune, losing in the quarterfinals.