Australian Open 2024: Balaji-Cornea pair lose in men's doubles second round; Bopanna-Babos pull out of mixed doubles

India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian partner Victor Vlad Cornea lost their second round men’s doubles match to Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday. The Indo-Romanian combo went down 3-6, 3-6 to their 10th-seeded opponents at the Rod Laver Arena. Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Hungary’s Timea Babos pulled out of their first round contest on Friday. The duo were supposed to play Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok. The Balaji-Cornea team, on the other hand, came in as an alternate pair into the competition. While the Indian is ranked 79th in ATP doubles ranking, the Romanian is ranked 69th. It was only the second time that Balaji had made it to the second round of the Australian Open, having done so last year with fellow Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Overall, this is the third time Balaji has entered the second round of a Grand Slam. He had progressed to the second round of the Wimbledon 2018 with compatriot Vishnu Vardhan. With inputs from PTI