Hangzhou Asian Games | Gold medal favourite Bopanna-Bhambri pair suffers shock exit, Ankita, Rutuja progress to pre-quarterfinals

Lower-ranked Uzbekistan pair stuns top-seeded Indians Bopanna & Bhambri in Asian Games 2nd round. Bhambri's serve & strokes falter in latter part of match.

In a huge upset, gold medal favourites and top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri were on September 25 knocked out of the Asian Games after being stunned by lower-ranked Sergey Fomin and Khumoyun Sultanov from Uzbekistan, in Hangzhou.

Bhambri struggled with his serve and strokes in the latter part of the match while the Uzbeki players raised their game against their superior opponents to walk away with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-6 win in the second round.

The defeat will rankle the Indian pair all the more as Bopanna is a top-10 player in doubles while Bhambri too is ranked among the top-100. The Uzbekis are not even in the top-300.

Serving at 3-4, 30-all in the second set, Bhambri served a double fault to go down by a break point. A wide backhand from Bhambri’s racquet handed the Uzbekis the crucial break.

Sultanov made no mistake in serving out the set by consistently putting in his first serves.

In the Super-tie breaker, the Uzbekis raced to a 3-0 lead and soon the Indians were down 5-1. The Uzbekis pulled off a stunning service return winner to make it 6-1 on Bopanna’s serve.

Fomin earned four match points with a backhand winner. The Indians saved the first but Sultanov found an inside-out forehand winner on the second to close the contest in their favour.