India's Rohan Bopanna and his American partnerRajeev Ram were surprisingly defeated by Italians Simone Bolelli and FabioFagnini 2-6, 6-7 (3) in the second round of the men's doubles at the AustralianOpen here Saturday.
In one of the early matches to go on court, Bopanna and hisIndian origin American Ram, seeded 12th, were down a set even before they couldsettle down, both dropping their first service games to go 0-4 down.
Both good servers, they just could not get into a rhythm andthe unseeded Italians seized the opportunity quickly to stamp their authority.
In the second set, Bopanna and Ram managed to force atie-break, but were soon down 2-5, and could get only one more point before theItalians served out taking both the points.
The big difference was that the Italians hit 33 winners toBopanna and Ram who could hit only 18.
Both pairs had problems with their serve, though theItalians could convert three of their six breakpoints whereas the Indians couldmanage only one of four they had.
Both Bolelli (80) and Fagnini (47) are in the top hundred inthe ATP rankings, while the former has a doubles ranking of 278 and the latter110 whereas Bopanna is ranked 12 in doubles and Ram 44.
Ram is actively pursuing singles and is ranked 110.
The Italians next play the winners of the match betweenIndia's Mahesh Bhupathi and Canadian Daniel Nestor, seeded fifth, and Romania'sVictor Hanescu and Slovak Martin Klizan.