Australian Open 2023: Bleak day for Indians with Jeevan-Balaji, Mirza losing; Nandal fends off four match points

Melbourne: After the highs of the previous day, Sunday proved disappointing from an Indian perspective at the 2023 Australian Open. Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji bowed out in the second round of men’s doubles and later, Sania Mirza and her women’s doubles partner Anna Danilina exited at the same stage. In the juniors, Yuvan Nandal staged a remarkable comeback from a set and 0-5 down in the third set, while fending off four match points, to progress in the boy’s singles. However, his foray in the doubles didn’t get the desired outcome. Shruti Ahlawat, too, lost in the first round of the girls’ singles. Playing at 11AM on the Kia Arena, with the sun beating down, Nedunchezhiyan and Balaji found it tough to get a look in on the Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin serve going down 4-6, 4-6 in an hour and 16 minutes. The French team won 42/56 points on serve and faced only one break point, which they duly saved. Long-time friends who converse in Tamil on the court, Balaji and Nedunchezhiyan had difficulty getting the same energy and volume from the crowd as they did a day before. It didn’t help that they were given little leeway by Martin-Chardy. The Indian team were broken in the fifth and ninth game of the first and second set. Martin got the job done with a comfortable love hold as Balaji’s serve return landed long. In women’s doubles, Mirza and Danilina were beaten 4-6, 6-4, 2-6 by Alison Van Uytvanck and Anhelina Kalinina with many taking their seats on Court 7 for the Indian who is playing her last career Grand Slam. Mirza, 36, will play her final tournament in Dubai and has admitted to not being motivated enough to keep up with the demands of the sport. But the sparks of fight and willingness to win are still alive. Time and again, she clenched her fist in celebration; expressed frustration to her father Imran sitting in the crowd and let out loud screams in anger when missing a shot. The Indo-Kazakh team came from a set and 0-3 down to arrest the flow of the match and force a decider. But they were unable to capitalise on it to once again go 0-3 down. This time, though, there was no coming back even though they saved one match point. It finished in anticlimactic fashion with Danilina serving consecutive double faults. After Sunday’s results, India’s hopes reside only in the mixed doubles where Rohan Bopanna and Mirza take on Makoto Ninomiya and Ariel Behar in the second round. In the junior category, Manas Dhamne and Nandal are in contention in the boys’ singles and Dhamne-Aryan Shah in the boy’s doubles. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.