Dubai Tennis Championships: Rohan Bopanna reaches doubles semi-finals with Marcin Matkowski

Dubai: India’s Rohan Bopanna, playing with his fourth different partner of the season, joined forces with Marcin Matkowski to reach the doubles semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The unseeded Indo-Polish pair knocked out Romania’s Florin Mergea and Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the USD 2,617,160 hard court tournament. [caption id=“attachment_3311560” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rohan Bopanna of India. AFP[/caption] This is the second best performance of the season for Bopanna, who won the season-opening Chennai Open with compatriot Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Bopanna and Matkowski had shocked second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers 5-7 6-3 11-9 in the opening round of one of the most-loved events on the calender. Bopanna could next find compatriot Leander Paes in the semi-finals if the veteran Indian and his Spanish partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez could go past third seeds Daniel Nestor from Canada and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin. There is no Indian competing in the singles. Prajnesh Gunneswaran had lost in the first round of the Qualifying event, suffering a 2-6 2-6 defeat against Romania’s 124th ranked Marius Copil.