Bopanna/Shapovalov Stun Top Seeds Cabal/Farah
Unseeded Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov closed out a day of upsets at the Mutua Madrid Open with the biggest one of all after taking down top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in straight sets on Wednesday.
The Indian doubles veteran and the 22-year-old Canadian have been a regular partnership on the doubles tour since 2019. They paired up for the first time since Roland Garros in 2020 in Madrid, where they are now into the quarter-finals.
One break of serve in each set made the difference for Bopanna and Shapovalov, who closed out the 6-3, 6-4 victory in an hour and 13 minutes. The pair didn’t drop serve once against the two-time Grand Slam winning Colombians, and they created eight chances en route to the win.
In the quarter-finals, Bopanna and Shapovalov will face Tim Puetz and Alexander Zverev after the Germans pulled off a surprise of their own in the second-round. Puetz and Zverev took down former Madrid champions Marcelo Melo (2017, w/ Kubot ) and Jean-Julien Rojer (2016 and 2019, w/ Tecau) 6-4, 6-4.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Also in action, third seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos dodged the upset bug as they took down Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2 in the second round. Marcelo Demoliner and Daniil Medvedev saved match point in the second set against Wesley Koolhof and Lukasz Kubot, but the seventh seeds were victorious in a Match Tie-break, 7-5, 6-7(4), 10-3.
Sixth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut defeated countrymen Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round. Fifth seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury weren’t so lucky against Alexander Bublik and Cristian Garin. The Kazakh-Chilean duo edged past Ram and Salisbury 7-6(5), 7-5.