Bopanna-Shapo juggernaut halted at Indian Wells

Indo-Canadian duo crashes out of quarters in straight sets

India's Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov have crashed out of the men's doubles competition in the ATP event at the BNP Paribas Open.

In the quarter-final match played on Thursday night, Bopanna and Shapovalov, the unseeded pair, lost to the all-Russian combination of Aslan Karatsev and Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4.

Bopanna ranked 49th in the world, and Shapovalov had in the Round of 16 defeated JanLennard Struff and Alexander Zverev of Germany to advance to the quarter-finals. Bopanna, who had partnered Ivan Dodig to the 2021 US Open final in September, and Shapovalov won 7-5, 6-3.

In the previous event at Sofia, Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisamul-Haq Qureshi, who are known as the Indo-Pak Express in the circuit after a successful combination for many years, had revived their old partnership. Both reached the Round of 16 before losing in three sets to Oliver Marach and Phillipp Oswald of Austria 2-6, 7-6(1), 10-7.

In the other quarter-final matches, seventh seed John Peers of Australia and Filip Polasek of Slovakia stunned top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic, both from Croatia, 6-2, 6-3. Fellow Croat Ivan Dodig and Brazil's Marcelo Melo defeated the Italian pair of Fabio Fognini and Lorenzo Sonego in three sets, 6-3, 4-6,10-8 while in the fourth quarter-final, Germany's Tim Puetz and Michael Venus of New

Zealand defeated Germany's

Kevin Krawietz and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-4, 6-2.

Emma withdraws...

Meanwhile, US Open champion Emma Raducanu has pulled out of this month's Kremlin Cup, citing a “tournament schedule change”. The 18-year-old Briton was due to be back on the court at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, which takes place between October 18-24. However, Raducanu said she would be unable to play at the event this year.

Raducanu has just played one match since she lifted the US Open trophy in the Flushing Meadows last month.