Rohan Bopanna gives India a winning start

India were off to a great start in the tennis competition with Rohan Bopanna demolishing Robert Buyinza of Uganda in straight sets in the men’s singles event of the Commonwealth Games here on Monday.
Bopanna won 6-1 6-4 win in just one-hour-and-two-minutes in the first round.

With two break of serves, Bopanna took a comfortable 5-1 lead in the opening set and sealed the lead in just 21 minutes.

Buyinza, ranked 1601, had some initial jitters, but started to serve well in the second set. But unforced errors continued to flow from his racquet.

Bopanna converted the fifth to get his first break — in the fifth game — to be up 3-2 in the second set. He had a chance to close the set in the ninth game but Buyinza played his best game to save that point. However, he could not stop the Indian from serving out the match in the next game.

Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev lost to Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova and Paul Hanley in the mixed doubles first round. Odionova and Hanley won 6-3, 3-6 and 6-3.