Australian Open 2021

[PKBasu]

RB is partnering China's Duan, and they play Bethany Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray in R1. Not much chance of making R2 in MxD either!

[Sanjay]

Things not looking up for Indian Tennis. We were much better in the 80s with Vijay and Ramesh. Sania still is our best woman's player.

I am not sure what the cure is. Even the US which was ruling in the 70s and 80s is down because tennis is too expensive. We need talent scouting at a young age but we need some rich guy like Ambani funding things.

[sameerph]

As expected Rohan lost in first round of mixed doubles too. So, end of dismal Austalian open for us.

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Yingying Duan (CHN) l. Bethani Mattek-Sands (USA) / Jamie Murray (GBR) 46 46

[PKBasu]

NRI Rajeev Ram is in the Mixed Doubles final, and will be playing the Men's Doubles semifinal (against Soares/Murray) tomorrow.

[PKBasu]

Holders Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury win their SF in Men's Doubles 64 76(2) against Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares. They were down 0-3 early on in the first set, but roared back. Rajeev definitely the star of the match. Rajeev and Joe play each other in the Mixed Doubles final too. (Post-match interview shows me I'm premature on that: Rajeev is in the MxD final, but Salisbury still needs to play his MxD semifinal!).

[suresh]

Joe Salisbury is one of the best retrievers in this game or at least that I have seen. I remember one match where he partnered Leander and won a point by chasing down balls that should have been winners. He did the same during one point in this match.

[PKBasu]

Rajeev Ram/Krejcikova well ahead, 61 32 (on serve), in the MxD final.

[PKBasu]

And Rajeev Ram wins another Slam title, taking the MxD final comfortably 6-1, 6-4.

[PKBasu]

Ram/Salisbury struggling in the Doubles final against Dodig/Polasek, who have been on fire. Although the latter have just made their first break (to go up 5-3 breaking Salisbury, and serving for the set), they put massive pressure on Rajeev Ram's serve as well -- partly because Rajeev is struggling to get first serves in. He is basically looking a bit winded; perhaps playing two Slam finals on successive days has taken its toll. Hopefully he'll come back in the next two sets.

[sameerph]

Ram and Salisbury lost in the final. Polasek was on fire today and Dodig was also good. So, Rajeev and Salisbury were always struggling in the final.