India's N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian partner Victor Vlad Cornea lost their second round men's doubles match to Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia in the Australian Open here on Saturday.
The Indo-Romanian combo went down 3-6 3-6 to their 10th-seeded opponents at the Rod Laver Arena. Balaji and Cornea defeated the Italian duo of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino 6-3 6-4 in the first round.
The Balaji-Cornea team came in as an alternate pair into the competition. While the Indian is ranked 79th in ATP doubles ranking, the Romanian is ranked 69th. It is only the second time that Balaji has made it to the second round of the Australian Open, having done so last year with fellow Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
Overall, this is the third time Balaji has entered the second round of a Grand Slam. He had progressed to the second round of the Wimbledon 2018 with compatriot Vishnu Vardhan.
Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos pull out of Australian Open 2024:
Meanwhile, India's Rohan Bopanna and his Hungarian partner Timea Babos have withdrawn from the mixed doubles event set to be held on Saturday of the Australian Open 2024. The duo were scheduled to face Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok at the first round in Melbourne on Saturday.
However, the exact reason of his decision to pull out is not known yet. It's worth noting that Bopanna and Australia's Matthew Ebden are also in the 3rd round of the Australian Open in the men's doubles and will be in action against Netherlands’s Wesley Koolhof and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic on Sunday.
