Rohan Bopanna, Marcin Matkowski Go Down To Jean-Julien Rojer, Horia Tecau In Dubai Final

Indo-Polish pair of Rohan Bopanna and Marcin Matkowski went down 6-4, 3-6, 3-10 to the Dutch-Romanian team of Jean-Julien Rojer, Horia Tecau in the men's doubles final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship on Saturday. Bopanna-Matkowski started off well in the first set by winning it 6-4 but could not carry forward the momentum going into the second and third set. Rojer-Tecau came back pretty strongly in the second set by winning it 6-3 that took the match to the super tie-breaker. In the super tie-breaker, the Indian-Polish pair were 1-4 behind and never recovered from that stage finally going down 3-10 to the fourth seeded pair of Rojer-Tecau in a match that lasted more than an hour.

Earlier in the tournament, the Indian-Polish pair of Rohan Bopanna and Marcin Matkowski beat Indian-Spanish team of G. Garcia-Lopez and Leander Paes 6-3, 3-6 and 10-6 to secure a berth in the final. Bopanna-Matkowski won the first set 6-3 but lost the second 3-6 that got Paes and Lopez right back in the match. But in the super tie-break, the Indian-Polish team, who are unseeded in the tournament, held their nerves to win the match.

The match went on for 1 hour, 8 minutes and 26 seconds with Bopanna-Matkowski prevailing in the super tie-breaker to seal their place in the final.

Bopanna and Matkowski reached the last four in the men's doubles event following a straight-set win over Romania's Florin Mergea and Serbia's Viktor Troicki. The unseeded Indo-Polish pair won 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the USD 2,617,160 hard court tournament. Matkowski is Bopanna's fourth different partner of the season. Bopanna and Matkowski had shocked second seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers 5-7, 6-3, 11-9 in the opening round.

(With PTI Inputs)