India’s Rohan Bopanna earned himself an opportunity to become only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam trophy by reaching the French Open mixed doubles final with partner Gabriela Dabrowski, in Paris on Wednesday.
Bopanna and his Canadian partner, seeded seventh, shocked third seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5 6-3 in the semifinals.
This is only the second time in his career that Bopanna had reached the summit clash of a Grand Slam. In 2010, he had made the final of US Open with Pakistani parter Aisam-ul-haq- Qureshi and lost to legendary Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike.
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They will now fight it out with Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Colombia’s Robert Farah, who knocked out Casey Dellacqua and Rajeev Ram 6-7(5) 6-3 10-5 in other semifinal contest.
Only three Indians have so far managed to lay hands on a Grand Slam trophy -- the legendary Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.
Bopanna is the lone Indian to survive in the tournament after the exits of Paes and Sania.
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