New York, August 31, 2024 — India’s Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti secured a spot in the men’s doubles third round of the US Open with a hard-fought victory over 15th seeds Austin Krajicek and Jean-Julien Rojer. The Indo-French duo triumphed 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a match that lasted two hours and five minutes on Friday.
This marks only the second time Bhambri has reached the third round at a Grand Slam, his previous advancement occurring at the Australian Open in 2014.
In other doubles action, second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden advanced to the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena and Argentina’s Federico Coria. Additionally, Bopanna teamed up with Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi in the mixed doubles, where the eighth-seeded pair won their opening match 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5) against Germany’s Tim Puetz and Dutch player Demi Schuurs.
However, Indian player N. Sriram Balaji and his Argentine partner Guido Andreozzi were eliminated from the US Open after losing to Michael Venus of New Zealand and Neal Skupski of Great Britain. The Indo-Argentine pair was defeated 6-7 (4), 4-6 in a second-round match that featured only one break of serve in the second set. Venus and Skupski managed to convert one of their seven break points, while Balaji and Andreozzi did not capitalize on their single opportunity.
Reflecting on his performance, Balaji told PTI, “The first step is to consistently play at this level. It’s starting from here. Now the next step is to get my ranking higher slowly. Game-wise, I’m feeling confident and moving in the right direction. I also have to keep working on certain aspects of my game and keep improving. This year, the main difference was having a coach/trainer traveling with me almost every other week, thanks to the doubles program.”
