Sports
Bopanna-Mergea enter semis despite loss at ATP Tour Finals
London: India’s Rohan Bopanna and Romanian Florin Mergea entered the semi-finals of the prestigious $7 million ATP World Tour Finals despite going down to Italian pairing of Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli in their men’s doubles third match of the round robin encounter here on Thursday.
The fifth seeds Fognini-Bolelli completed their campaign with a 6-1, 1-6, 10-5 victory in 61 minutes over eighth seeds Bopanna and Mergea, who were already assured of topping Group Ashe/Smith at The O2 Arena here.
Bopanna dropped his serve to love in the opening game, which proved to be enough for the Italians to seal the first set in 31 minutes.
Bopanna and Mergea responded immediately, taking a 3-0 lead in the second set and broke Fognini once more for a 5-1 advantage. Mergea took the encounter to a match tie-break on their third set point opportunity, closing out to 30.
Fognini and Bolelli, having lost their first two group matches, broke into a 5/1 lead in the match tie-break and went on to record their 26th match win of the season, which included lifted the Australian Open title.
Bopanna and Mergea, 2-1 overall in round-robin play, will now prepare for Saturday’s semi-finals against the Group Fleming/McEnroe runners-up.
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.
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