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Another first round loss for Rohan.

At Estoril Open ATP 250, Portugal (Clay)

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Alexander Bublik (KAZ) l. Luke Bambridge (GBR) / Dominic Inglot (GBR) 26 67(1)

Rohan has lost 7 straight matches this year and has won only 1 set in those losses.

Only good news for him is that for next 2 weeks at Madrid and Rome Masters, he is partnering his old successful Denis Shapavalov. Hope that changes the luck and results for him.

Let’s hope a change in partners brings good luck to RB, but it appears likely to me that he will hang it up after this year.

Hope Bopavalov spark some success on the double court. If not RoBo might find it difficult to find partners willing to play with him. What happened? Wasn't he having success with as recently as 2020 with Shapavalov?

Well, he is old and fading and maybe they no longer play the same events?

Finally Bopanna won a match - first this year. He and Shapo beat Spanish pair of Mario Lopez and Jaume Munar 76, 64 at the Madrid Open. Hope this sparks some confidence in RoBo.

Well, well, well! Bopanna-Shapovalov just now knocked out the No. 1 seeds of Cabal-Farah at the Madrid Open Masters 1000 in the Round of 16 by the score of 6-3, 6-4. Very impressive win indeed.

Yes, big win for Bops and Shapo.

At ATP Masters 1000, Madrid, Spain (Clay)

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Dennis Shapovalov (CAN) d. (1) Juan Sabestian Cabal (COL) / Robert Farah (COL) 63 64

Next,

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND) / Dennis Shapovalov (CAN) vs. Tim Puetz (GER) / Alexander Zverev (GER)

That was unexpected, to put it mildly! Go Bops!!

Shapolov is the only partner who has worked somewhat for Rohan. I’m not as surprised by this win. They make a strong team.

Yes, really good win considering recent terrible run for Bops.

Bopanna-Shapovalov lost to Zverev-Puetz in the QF of the 2021 Madrid Masters 4-6, 6-3, 5-10.
Bopanna was the weakest player on court. His hands are slower, his feet are slower, he missed a few sitters, his serve was off, he was up and down, and he ended with a double fault. Though he must have played well in the previous round to beat the #1 seeds. Still an encouraging week after a disastrous start to the year. Hopefully he can build from here.

Saw the entire match,and Zverev was the pick of quartet ,only hours after upsetting Nadal, which just proves the top guys are naturally good at even dbls , and it is only due to their concentration on singles, prevents them from full time dbls commitment.

Rajiv wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 4:01 am Saw the entire match,and Zverev was the pick of quartet ,only hours after upsetting Nadal, which just proves the top guys are naturally good at even dbls , and it is only due to their concentration on singles, prevents them from full time dbls commitment.

There was someone who made this very same point on this forum a few years ago. I think it might have been @saniafan. Some people took umbrage to that because they thought that was dissing doubles specialists like Paes, Bhupathi and the Bryan twins. I tend to agree with you, but we'll never be able to test your hypothesis cuz we never have the top guys consistently play doubles to have sufficient data. In the 70s and 80s McEnroe dominated singles and doubles, but there were doubles specialists too. In the 60s the likes of Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe, Roche played both. But nowadays doubles has become highly specialized with specific tactics, skills, coaching and even fitness training. Again, I think you might be right.

Just to continue on this topic, that good singles players naturally excell in dbls ( which i feel is just a natural transition to another format )
RK was never a dbls specialist, but when it came to Davis Cup Dbls with Paes , had a fantastic record and could take on the best in the world.
Federer/Wawrinka a scratch paring won the gold at Beijing enroute beating the hottest pair on the circuit Paes/Bhupathi.
Even Nadal has good dbls Olympics record and even won a gold in Rio.

Yup. There's some e0vidence to show that the top singles guys do extremely well in doubles. Apart from results, just watching Federer, Murray, Zverev, Nadal, Wawrinka etc. shows how good these guys are at doubles. Djokovic, not so much, IMHO. Now guys like Tsitsipas, Shapovalov and Rublev are showing amazing doubles skills.