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India's challenge at the US Open stayed alive after Rohan Bopanna progressed to the Round of 16 in the men’s doubles, partnering Australia's Matthew Ebden, at Flushing Meadows, in New York, on Friday.
The sixth seeds needed a little over an hour to overcome the unseeded pairing of Roman Safiullin of Russia and Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-3 in a second round match.
The Indo-Australian pair were on the backfoot early in the first set, barely unable to hold first serve and beaten at love in the second game. However, a break in the eighth helped them take the set.
Safiullin-Golubev stepped up the intensity in the second set. They hit more aces, had fewer double-faults and unforced errors. However, that wasn’t enough to stretch their opponents and get a break.
Bopanna-Ebden drew on their experience to earn back-to-back breaks in the seventh and the ninth game to seal a straight sets victory.
They will meet the unseeded British pair of Julian Cash and Henry Patten in the Round of 16 on Sunday.
Bopanna also advanced the mixed doubles, partnering Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi for the event.
The pair won their opening match on Friday, beating Andreas Miles and Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-2.
The 43-year-old Bopanna is India’s sole surviving representative at the US Open 2023.
Earlier, Saketh Myneni and Yuki Bhambri, teaming up with different partners, bowed out in the opening round of the men’s doubles.
Myneni and his Russian partner Alex Karatsev lost to Serbia's Laslo Djere and Switzerland's Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7(4-7), 6-3, 6-2, while Bhambri and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner lost 3-6, 5-7 to the ninth-seeded Polish pair of Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski.