India's Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Middelkoop marched into the pre-quarterfinals of the French Open 2022 men's doubles event with a straight-set win over Andrey Golubev and Fabrice Martin on Thursday. (More Tennis News)
Bopanna and Middelkoop won the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 scoreline against their opponents in one hour and six minutes. The Indo-Dutch combo, seeded 16th, broke the from Kazakhstan-French pair at 4-4 in the second set and then Middelkoop served out the match at love.
Bopanna's best performance at the clay court major is reaching the last-eight stage in 2011, 2016, 2018 and 2021. Later in the day, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sania Mirza will be in action in their respective doubles events.
Meanwhile, two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova has lost in the second round at Roland Garros to a French wild-card entry making her debut in any Grand Slam tournament.
The 227th-ranked Leolia Jeanjean’s 6-2, 6-2 victory over the eighth-seeded Pliskova means that six of the top 10 women in the seedings at the French Open already are gone before the second round is completed.
Pliskova joins No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova, No. 4 Maria Sakkari, No. 5 Anett Kontaveit, No. 6 Ons Jabeur and No. 10 Garbine Muguruza on the way out. The remaining four women in the top 10 are scheduled to play Thursday: No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Paola Badosa, No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 9 Danielle Collins.
Pliskova has been ranked No. 1 and was the runner-up at Wimbledon last year and the U.S. Open in 2016. She also has reached the semifinals at the other two major tournaments. That includes at the French Open in 2017.
