The Polish duo of Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot edged out the Indian pair of Leander Paes and Bopanna by defeating them 6-4, 7-6(6) in the first round of Men's Doubles, thus bringing Paes’ seventh Olympics to an early halt.
Four back to back breaks in the first set
Both the teams started comfortably by holding their respective service games to love, with the Polish pair serving first. At 2-1, the Indians saved a break point to level the match at 2-2. It was followed by a break for the Indians, who broke at love to take a 3-2 lead. The Polish pair responded with an immediate break of service, thus leveling the match at 3-3. This game was followed by yet another trading of breaks, thus bringing the back-to-back breaks of service games to 4.
The Polish pair recovered from the pattern of games to strongly hold their next game to love, thus getting a 5-4 lead. The pressure took its toll, as Bopanna was broken to love for the second time, thereby letting the Polish pair wrap up the first set at 6-4. Bopanna, who is known for his strong serve, getting broken twice was a point to behold as both teams had an almost equal amount of winners and unforced errors.
Close Tiebreaker
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The Polish pair again served first in the second set and both pairs managed to hold on to their service games, keeping the scores level. At 2-3, 30-40, the Indians saved the first break point of the set and managed to hold onto a crucial service game. At 5-5, 30-40, Indians got the first break in the set and led 6-5. Again pressure made Bopanna lose his service game, with the Polish team breaking at love to force out a tie-breaker.
In a closely contested tie-break, Matkowski and Kubot got a mini-break and lead 4-1, before the tides turned and the Indians clawed back to 4-4. At 5-6, the Polish pair managed to hold onto both their serves and took a 7-6 lead and got the next point on Bopanna’s serve to close out the match in an hour and twenty-four minutes. Matkowski/Kubot will face Ferrer/Bautista Agut in the second round.
Controversy surrounding Paes
The Indian veteran, who is competing in a record seventh-Olympics courted controversy when he arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 4th August, two days before his opening round. He received flak from the media for opting to play in the World Team Tennis forgoing prolonged preparation for the Olympics games.
The 1996 Atlanta bronze medal winner had taken to twitter to slam the media and rubbish reports of his refusal to share a room with Bopanna and also of his team being unaware of his whereabouts. Incidentally, he was not allotted a room upon his arrival in the village and was forced to share accommodations with the chef-de-mission of India and later with the Indian captain Zeeshan Ali.
He also expressed his disappointed over the treatment meted out to him.However,this early round loss will only act as a fodder for criticism against the Indian duo. However, the early round exit will only add fodder to the criticism surrounding the Indian duo.