Balaji and Miguel Move to Second Round of Australian Open Men’s Doubles

Melbourne: India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela progressed to the second round of the Australian Open men’s doubles event with a dominating straight sets over Robin Haase and Aleksandr Nedovyesov on Thursday. The Indo-Mexican duo of N. Sriram Balaji and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela defeated the Dutch-Kazakh pair 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour in their opening men’s doubles match.

Balaji and Reyes-Varela displayed superior consistency and firepower, hitting 23 winners compared to their opponents’ 16. After breaking serve in the sixth game of the first set, they were immediately broken back but regained control with a decisive backhand winner in the 10th game to take the set.

In the second set, a crucial unforced error by Haase and Nedovyesov handed Balaji and Reyes-Varela a break in the eighth game, which they capitalised on to close out the set and the match comfortably.

Elsewhere, Rithvik Bollipalli became the third Indian to exit the men’s doubles event, following Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri. Bollipalli and his American partner Ryan Seggerman lost 6-7, 1-6 to the sixth-seeded duo of Finland’s Harri Heliovaara and the UK’s Henry Patten. IANS

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