Australian Open: India's N Sriram Balaji Reaches Second Round of Men's Doubles

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posted on 10 months ago — updated on 1 second ago

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N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian doubles partner Victor Cornea secured a comfortable victory in the first round of men's doubles at Australian Open.

Indian tennis star N Sriram Balaji has pulled off a roaring start to his campaign at the Australian Open, underway in Melbourne. Balaji and his Romanian doubles partner Victor Cornea secured a comfortable victory in the first round of men’s doubles. The duo triumphed over the Italian pair of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino in straight sets with a scoreline of 6-3 and 6-4. Despite featuring at the Australian Open as an alternative pair, Balaji and Cornea were able to showcase impressive coordination during the first-round match.

In the next round, Balaji and Cornea will square off against the 10th seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia. The match is slated to be held on Saturday, January 20. It will no doubt be a challenging contest for Balaji and Cornea.

This is the second time that Balaji has punched his ticket to the second round of the Australian Open Men’s Doubles. He replicated the feat last year along with fellow Indian star Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Teaming up with Vishnu Vardhan, Balaji also reached the second round of the Wimbledon men’s doubles back in 2018. The Coimbatore-born player looks promising to go beyond the second round this time at the Australian Open.

N Sriram Balaji also featured at the French Open last year. He partnered with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan to compete in the men’s doubles event of the European Grand Slam. The Indian duo entered the main draw in the last minute and got an experienced pair of Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka and Australia’s Alexia Popyrin as their opponents for the first round.

Balaji and Nedunchezhiyan spent the entire 2023 season together and competed in several tour events. They had reached the finals of the ATP 250 event in Pune and also featured in the Challengers tour after that.

Balaji and Nedunchezhiyan got to know about their participation at the French Open, going into the main draw as the fourth alternative pair. They could demonstrate their chemistry at Rolland Garros but their efforts were not enough to overcome the strong pair of Ivashka and Popyrin. The first-round clash continued for nearly one hour, with Balaji and Nedunchezhiyan losing the opening two sets 3-6, 4-6.