Bopanna-Dabrowski crash out of Wimbledon
Wimbledon, July 14 (IANS) Indian star Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski crashed out of the mixed doubles competition at the Wimbledon tennis tournament following a tough three-set battle here on Thursday.
The 10th seeded Indo-Canadian pair went down 7-6, 4-6, 5-7 to the unseeded duo of Henri Kontinen of Finland and Heather Watson of Britain in a quarter-final clash that lasted for two hours.
Kontinen and Watson are expected to face another tough challenge in the semi-finals as they will meet second seeds Bruno Soares of Brazil and Russian Elena Vesnina.
The second seeds cruised to a 7-5, 6-4 win over unseeded pair Andre Begeman of Germany and American Nicole Melichar in a one hour and 21 minute clash in their quarter-final tie.
Bopanna and Dabrowski started off well with a narrow win in the first set before Kontinen and Watson took their game up a notch to take the second.
The third set saw an intense battle. With the score tied at 3-3, Kontinen and Watson earned a service break in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead.
Not to be outdone, Bopanna and Dabrowski broke back in the very next game.
The next two games went with the serve before Kontinen and Watson forced anther break of serve to take a 6-5 lead. They ten held serve to win the set and the match.