French Open 2017: From Sania Mirza to Leander Paes, how Indian players stack up at Roland Garros

All eyes will be on defending champions Leander Paes and Martina Hingis once the mixed doubles action gets underway on Wednesday at Roland Garros but there are plenty of reasons to watch out for the Indians at the second Grand Slam of the year.

India has a long history with the courts of red clay in Paris, with Ramesh Krishnan winning the boys’ title way back in 1979. This venue was also where India won their first Grand Slam title — Mahesh Bhupathi with partner Rika Hiraki in mixed doubles in 1997. Bhupathi went on to lift three more doubles trophies in his career — two men’s doubles titles with Paes (1999 and 2001), and another mixed doubles one with Sania Mirza (2013).

Paes also clinched the title with different partners — men’s doubles with Lukas Dlouhy (2009), and the mixed doubles with Hingis in 2016. Mirza, apart from her mixed doubles title, also finished runners-up in 2011 with Elena Vesnina, and 2016 with Ivan Dodig.

With five Indians in the main draw this time around, here’s a look at their form, partners and draws.

Sania Mirza

The former World No 1 has had a quiet season so far in 2017. Mirza started the year on a high, winning the Brisbane title in January, but has made only one final since then — in Miami. It was also after the Miami tournament that Mirza decided to split with her Czech partner Barbora Strycova due to the latter’s hectic schedule of singles and doubles, and her own desire of playing with someone who only focused on doubles.

Since the split, Mirza has been trying to build a steady partnership with Kazakhstani Yaroslava Shvedova. During the last four weeks, they reached the Madrid quarter-finals and the last-four at Rome. At the French Open, they are seeded fourth and have a tricky draw — they start against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova and could face a potential battle against the unseeded yet highly successful pairing of Australians Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty in the third round.

In the mixed doubles, Mirza will aim to do one better than last year with Dodig, and the duo lead the bottom half of the draw as the second seeds. Mirza and Dodig might have to take on Elina Svitolina and Artem Sitak in their third round and there is the possibility of an all-Indian affair in the quarters with Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski also in the same half.

Mirza has been struggling with a knee injury, but insists it’s not a serious issue yet. However, clay is one of the most brutal surfaces to play on, and one which Mirza has had the least amount of success. It could turn out to be a very testing Major for the Indian.

Rohan Bopanna

Bopanna started 2017 with a title at the Chennai Open and consistent results over the last five months have seen his doubles ranking rise to 22. He paired up with Pablo Cuevas at the Australian Open and the duo renewed their partnership for the clay season, where they won the title at Monte Carlo and made the last-eight at Rome.

Cuevas has had some great results in singles as well, especially on clay, his favorite surface. He is ranked 23rd in both singles and doubles, but his singles’ career hasn’t affected the pair’s doubles partnership yet. Bopanna did admit that they haven’t practiced together as much as they would have liked, but is confident they can challenge for the French Open title.

Bopanna and Cuevas start their campaign against French wildcards Paul-Henri Mathieu and Mathias Bourgue, and have a potentially tough third-round encounter against fifth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. The Indo-Uruguayan pair is in the bottom half of the men’s doubles draw, which is headlined by second seeds and two-time Slam-winning pairing of Nicholas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Bopanna is seeded seventh with Dabrowski in the mixed doubles. The Bangalorean teamed up with Canadian Dabrowski at the US Open in 2016 and have played mixed doubles events together since then. At the Australian Open, they were knocked out by Dodig and Mirza in the quarters, and will be looking for revenge at Roland Garros, should the two pairs meet again.

Leander Paes

Paes and Hingis will be aiming to defend their mixed doubles crown over the course of the two weeks but have plenty of hurdles in their path as an unseeded team. Paes’ dip in form and rankings meant that the duo did not have a high enough combined ranking to justify a seeding but this should hardly be a factor at play. The veterans are playing together for the third year in a row, and their chemistry and experience trump over rankings and draws.

Paes and Hingis have been drawn in the same half as top seeds John Peers and Chan Yung-jan, who are both talented and successful doubles players. The Indo-Swiss pair play Katarina Srebotnik and Raven Klassen, who are the No 4 seeds, in the first round.

In the men’s doubles, Paes is participating with American Scott Lipsky, and this partnership has registered quite a few decent performances in the Challenger circuit. Paes and Lipsky won at Tallahassee and reached the semi-finals at Bordeaux and the ATP 250 event in Geneva. They start off against the unseeded pairing of Chung Hyeon and Rudu Albot.

Divij Sharan and Purav Raja

French Open 2017 will be Sharan and Raja’s second Major with a direct entry into the main round. The 31-year-olds have blossomed late in their careers, and have forged an understanding partnership built over years of toiling play at the Challenger level. Together, they have managed to rise to a respectable ranking in men’s doubles that falls under the cut-off for Grand Slams and most ATP 250 tournaments.

They are coming into the French Open on the heels of a title at Bordeaux, though they did lose in the first round at Lyon last week. Over the clay season, Sharan and Raja also made the quarters at Houston and Estoril, which are both ATP 250 events, where the competition is stiffer.

The Indian duo was placed in the top half of the men’s doubles draw, and they face Spaniard Nicholas Almagro and American Steve Johnson in the first round.

Other Indians

There will be no Indians in the singles’ main draw as both Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out in the first round of qualifying.

However, a special mention must be made of Abhimanyu Vannemreddy who won the Rendez-vous à Roland Garros title and secured a wildcard into the boys’ main draw. The 17-year-old battled for two hours and 15 minutes to defeat Japanese Hikaru Shiraishi in the final of the event.

The Rendez-vous à Roland Garros initiative, which was introduced two years ago, gives talented young players a chance to compete in the French Open juniors. A total of 667 under-18 players from India, Japan, China, Brazil, USA and South Korea participated in the qualifying stages of the tournament.