By Ajaydeep Grewal – 11th August, 2019
Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov were knocked out of the Rogers cup in Montreal after going down 6-7(3) 6-7(7) to the Dutch pairing of Robin Haase and Wesley Koolhof in the semi-finals. Playing on the National Bank Court at the IGA stadium, the Indo-Canadian pairing was backed by a packed stadium. There were more people watching this match than the singles semi-final which was taking place at the same time on the centre court.
In the first set, Bopanna/Shapovalov raised to a 3-0 lead after breaking Hasse’s serve in the second game. But the Indo-Canadian pair could not capitalise on the initial lead and Shapovalov was broken in the 5th game. Although the Indo-Canadian pair fought back by breaking Haase’s serve in the next game, but this was followed by Bopanna losing his serve in the 7th game after leading 40-0. From here on, both the pairs held on to their serves and the set went into a tie-break. The Dutch pairing dominated the tie-break from the start, before closing it at 7-3.
The second set also went to a tie-break, with both the pairs holding onto their serves. This tie-break was definitely much more well contested than the first one and Bopannna/Shapovalov had a chance to close out the set at 6-5, but they could not capitalise on it. Serving for the set at 8-7, the Dutch pair converted their first match point to close out the match 7-6(3) 7-6(7).
Haase and Koolhof will now face Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the title clash.
