Bopanna fails in Australian Open wild card bid

Rohan Bopanna's hopes of qualifying for the Australian Open tennis championships were dashed after he lost 4-6, 3-6 to third seed Goichi Motomura of Japan in the final of the Asian Tennis Championships in Tashkent on Monday.

The up-and-coming Indian junior, who had outclassed fourth seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei in the semi-finals, was hoping to get a wild card which is reserved for the winner of the tournament but an injury to his right arm during the match put paid to his hopes against the tournament's third seed.

He was 3-0 up in the first set and serving well till the injury showed up. From then on, his powerful service lacked sting and he was repeatedly broken.

The match took a little over an hour. Games went with serve till 4-4 in the first set till the No. 8 seed Bopanna dropped his serve and allowed Motomura to go ahead at 5-4 and serve out the set.

In the second set, Bopanna was broken in the third and ninth games as Motumura cruised to victory.

The 23-year-old Bopanna was extremely disappointed with his loss and the fact he missed out on a place in the Australian Open.

"I’m a little bit upset at losing. It is better to lose in the first or second round rather than in the final," he said.

Talking about his injury, he said his right bicep gave him trouble.

"In the first set I played better, but then my arm was injured and I couldn’t concentrate. I felt pain in the arm and was distracted."

Top women’s seed Akiko Morigami made it a double for Japan, easily beating Ivanna Isroilova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-1 in the women's final.