Kamal Ghorui
MELBOURNE: Yuki Bhambri and Swede Andre Goransson rallied to score over Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez and Dutchman David Pel 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round of the Australian Open men’s doubles competition. Play was stopped for almost four hours as the heat rule came into play at Melbourne Park on Saturday, giving Bhambri and Goransson a chance to gather their thoughts. The Indo-Swedish pairing, the tenth seeds, who lost the first set and were locked at 2-2 in the second set, stepped on the accelerator when they returned to action. They stayed ahead in the second-set tie-break before levelling the set scores on their third opportunity. In the third set, Bhambri and Goransson struck in the third game and didn’t look back. The Indo-Swedish combine, a relatively new pairing, will play Brazil’s Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos in the round of 16. Meanwhile, in another men’s doubles second-round clash, alternates Sriram Balaji and his Austrian partner Neil Oberleitner went down to the fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic 5-7, 1-6 in 73 minutes. The Indo-Austrian pairing was pushed onto the back foot when Balaji was broken at love in the 11th game. The difference between the two teams was in their return game, with Arevalo and Pavic showing why they were the seeded combine. After holding serve in the opening game, the alternates couldn’t do much at all. India’s 17-year-old Arnav Vijay Paparkar will take on Indian-American Vihaan Reddy, 16, in the first round of the boys’ singles. India’s Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi will play another 16-year-old, Anna Pushkareva, in the first round of the girls’ singles.
