Melbourne, Jan 20: India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian partner Victor Vlad Cornea entered the second round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open here on Friday. They defeated the Italian duo of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
In the next round, the Indo-Romanian pair will take on 10th seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia.
The Balaji-Cornea team came in as an alternate pair into the competition. While the Indian is ranked 79th in ATP doubles ranking, the Romanian is ranked 69th.
It is only the second time that Balaji has made it to the second round of the Australian Open, having done so last year with fellow Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
Overall, this is the third time Balaji has entered the second round of a Grand Slam. He had progressed to the second round of the Wimbledon 2018 with fellow Indian Vishnu Vardhan.
Novak Djokovic, Rohan Bopanna and Aryna Sabalenka had a fantastic day on the court as they made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open 2024. Ben Shelton was the major casulaty on a day where the big names didn’t face much of an issue.
Andrey Rublev was tested in the second set by Korda, but he found his groove back to secure a straight sets win and safe passage into the fourth round. Score: 6-2, 7-6, 6-4. Ben Shelton, the 16th seed, has been knocked out in the third round after a marathon match against 20th seed Adrian Mannarino.
The American youngster loses in 5 sets. 10th seed Beatriz Hadad Maia has been shown the door in the third round. 20-year-old Maria Timofeeva of Russia completes a straight-set win. It was not a straightforward win as the Russian youngster needed to win a first-set tie-breaker to clinch the match 7-6 (7), 6-3.
Timofeeva is in some form in Melbourne as she defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the previous round.
The Russian youngsters are making heads turn in the Australian Open.
Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden are through to the third round of the men’s doubles after beating Australia’s John Millman and Edward Winter 6-2, 6-4.
Novak Djokovic has won 10 Australian Opens and could well be on the way to his 11th this fortnight.
Last night, the Serbian great played in his 100th match at Melbourne Park, claiming his 92nd win at the tournament as he overcame Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight sets.
Asked to reflect on his journey to an Australian Open century and his motivation throughout the years, the world no. 1 delivered an emotional tribute to his family.
âIâll try to keep this answer as short as possible,â he began.
âI have been blessed to go through a very interesting life journey, so to say.
âComing from Serbia during the 90s wasnât easy for my family and my parents had to endure a lot of adversity, economically and in every sense, in order for me to live my dream.”