Tennis Davis Cup 2010: Thomaz Bellucci beats Rohan Bopanna in a five-setter epic
The Indian tennis player, Rohan Bopanna has lost the opening singles match of the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie at the hands of world number twenty seven Thomaz Bellucci in a total of five sets on Friday. The final match score was 7-6 (2) 6-7 (7) 5-7
6-4 10-8. The battle concluded after a time period of four and a half hours in Chennai.
With Rohan's loss, India has conceded a lead of 1-0, and now Somdev Devvarman will have to try his level best to triumph in his second singles versus Ricardo Melo to prevent the day for the hosts.
Thomaz, who struggled with his opening serve throughout the match, did well in the end to save his country from an embarrassing defeat versus a player who is ranked number 479 in the world.
With a comprehensive lead of 5-2 in the decisive set, Rohan had a total of three match points in the eight games, however, missed all of them under extreme pressure in Chennai.
The Indian was fully supported by his teammates along with the crowd, but he never managed to bounce back from the set-back and missed his serve in the following game.
Rohan’s confidence, with which he dominated his superior-ranked tennis opponent early on, slowly waned away, and yet another break of serve during the seventeenth game dashed all his hopes to the ground.
Before that Rohan was nicely placed to grab the second set tie-break, as the Indian was up 5-2; however, he let his opponent to bounce back and thus lost the set in the end.
During the start of the match, Rohan used his mortal serve and heavy strokes quite smartly, and was also supported by some erratic shot-making by Thomaz. The left-handed Thomaz was unpredictable with his serve, as a result of which he had to fight really hard
until the end against the world number 479 to win today’s match of the Davis Cup tennis tournament.
Rohan, who usually plays from the baseline, approached the net occasionally and did not concede many points on his serve, which was way too difficult to tackle for the Brazilian.
The Indian created a total of two break opportunities during the opening set, however, couldn’t convert either of the two, as he seemed over-anxious on those major points.
Bellucci gradually gained momentum and wrapped-up the match in a total of five sets in the end. Rohan rode on a double break to take a lead of a 4-1 in the final set, however, still ended on the wrong side of the result.
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