After Novak Djokovic and his men’s doubles partner Miomir Kecmanovic won their first-round match against Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Gonzalo Escobar at the Paris Masters, the Serbian team was to face India’s Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden on Wednesday. A lot of Indian fans had pinned hopes for the match, to see the Indian beat Djokovic, albeit in doubles.
But all the expectations came crashing down as the world no. 1 in men’s singles, Novak Djokovic, and his partner handed a walkover to Rohan Bopanna and Ebden. The simple explanation for this move could be, that Djokovic prioritized the singles event, and had completed his first-round match against Tomas Martin Etcheverry only an hour prior to the doubles match.
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After the handover, despite the Indian progressing to the third round, the fans were not happy.
Meanwhile, Bopanna and Ebden had received a bye in the first round of the tournament as well. The duo were returning to the ATP Tour after their runners-up finish at the Shanghai Masters a couple of weeks ago. The pair has had a wonderful year so far, having reached the final of two ATP events successively. They also finished runners-up at the US Open 2023. Bopanna and Ebden had won the Qatar Open and Indian Wells title earlier in the year.
As per the draw, they will now face Horacia Zeballos and Marcel Granollers in the quarters on Friday.
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