French Open: Bopanna, Middelkoop enter maiden semifinals

Bopanna & Middelkoop
Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop fought back after losing the first set. Photo: Twitter@rolandgarros

Paris: India's Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Middelkoop advanced to their first Grand Slam semifinal in seven years after beating Lloyd Glasspool and Henri Heliovaara at the French Open here on Monday.

The Indo-Dutch pair, who last reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam in the 2015 Wimbledon, scored a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over the British-Finnish combination in a hard-fought men's doubles quarterfinal match.

Bopanna, 42, and Middelkoop, 38, will face 12th seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Roger on Thursday in the last four.

The Bopanna and Middelkoop squandered the opening set but dished out a superb fightback to win the next two as emerge victors.

In the decider, the Indo-Dutch pair showed tremendous mental fortitude to fightback from 3-5 down to take the match to a super tie-break.

They were again 0-3 behind but won 10 straight points to come up trumps.

Bopanna and Middelkoop had saved five match points to knock out Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic, the reigning Wimbledon champions, from the Roland Garros, on Saturday.

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