US Open 2023 Highlights: Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden wins in straight sets to reach pre-quarterfinals

Welcome to the Khel Now's live blog for the Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden vs Roman Safiullin/Andrey Goludev men's doubles round 2 match in US Open 2023.

India’s top ranked men’s doubles player Rohan Bopanna has enjoyed good success in the last two days of the US Open 2023. The 43-year-old, with partner Matthew Ebden, started off the campaign by winning the opening round match and in the following day, registered another opening round win in the mixed doubles category with Aldila Sutjiadi.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Australian duo, Bopanna and Ebden will next face Roman Safiullin and Andrey Golubev in the men’s round 2 fixture at the US Open 2023. The experienced duo enjoyed a comfortable outing in the opening round, by winning the match in two sets against Aleksander Vukic and Christopher O’Connell.

Preview

In the opening round, the Indo-Aussie duo registered five aces and had win percent of 90 on the first serve. The second game service was equally impressive as the first, with 73 per cent. The sixth seeds further converted three out of the five break points opportunities to secure the match without any hiccups.

Rohan Bopanna will be playing his third successive match in three days including the mixed doubles. This should not hamper his performance as he has wealth of experience with respect to workload management.

About the opponents

Roman Safiullin and Andrey Golubev registered a win against inexperienced American duo of Aleksander Kovacevic and Moreno de Alboran in their opening round fixture. Like Bopanna and Ebden, the Russian-Kazakhstan pair had good per cent of break point conversion (3/4). Service games looks like an area of concern for duo as they registered four doubles faults and had won only 39 service points to their opponents 32.

Andrey Golubev is predominantly a doubles player while Safiullin prefers singles over doubles. In the past month, Golubev has won a Challenger title at Salzburg partnering Denys Molchanov and finished finalist at Banja Luka Challenger. However, the same performances have not reflected at the higher stages, as he lost three successive ATP Tour matches in the opening rounds – Swiss Open, Croatia Open, and Austrian Open.

Head-to-head record 

This will be the first time both pairs will meet against each other.

Prediction

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden go into the match as clear favourites over Safiullin and Andrey Golubev. With wealth of experience in favour of Indo-Aussie pair, they should easily get through to the pre-quarterfinals. The Kazakh-Russian pair in order to put a fight need to work on their service games and avoid double faults.