Bopanna-Mergea duo bows out

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Romania’s Florin Mergea lost in the men’s doubles first round of the ATP Vienna Open here on Wednesday.

Austria’s Julian Knowle and Canada’s Daniel Nestor beat the fourth-seeded Bopanna and Mergea 7-6(5), 5-7, 10-4 at the Wiener Stadthalle.

After sharing the first two sets it boiled down to the super tie-break where Knowle and Nestor easily recorded the win.

Overall, eight double faults from the seeded pair also did not help them as they gave away points at crucial moments of the match.

The results:

Second round: Ivo Karlovic bt Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 7-5; Ernests Gulbis bt John Isner 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; David Ferrer bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-1; Fabio Fognini bt Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-4.

First round: Fabio Fognini bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4; Kevin Anderson bt Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles:

First round: Julian Knowle & Daniel Nestor bt Rohan Bopanna & Florin Mergea 7-6(5), 5-7, 10-4.