11 May,2015 09:46 AM IST | | PTI
Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna won his third title of the 2015 season and first with new partner Florin Mergea as they lifted the Madrid Open trophy with a tense win over Nenand Zimonjic and Martin Matkowski yesterday
Madrid: Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna won his third title of the 2015 season and first with new partner Florin Mergea as they lifted the Madrid Open trophy with a tense win over Nenand Zimonjic and Martin Matkowski yesterday.
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea with their winners trophies at the Caja Magica yesterday. PIC/Getty Images
Bopanna and his Romanian partner saved a match point before overcoming the challenge of the fifth seeds 6-2, 6-7(5), 11-9 in one hour and 24 minutes in the final of the euro 4,185,405 clay court Masters event. Bopanna had won two titles with Daniel Nestor in Sydney and Dubai at the start of the season before splitting with the Canadian.
Bopanna played in his second final with Mergea yesterday, having ended runners-up at the Casablanca event last month. With the win, the pair earned valuable 1000 ranking points.
Bopanna and Mergea raced to a 4-1 lead with an early break and never allowed their rivals to come back in the opening set. However, Matkowski and Zimonjic came back in the second set winning it. The third set saw even more drama as the match hinged on a tie-breaker which turned to be a tense affair even as Bopanna and Mergea had opened up a comfortable 6-1 lead. However soon the score was 8-8. Bopanna and the Romanian saved a match point at 8-9 and reeled off the next three points to win.
