Australian Open: India’s men’s doubles challenge over as Sriram Balaji exits-OxBig News Network

India’s challenge at the men’s doubles event at the Australian Open 2025 has come to an end as N. Sriram Balaji and his partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela exited the competition in the second round on Saturday, January 18. Balaji and Reyes-Varela put in a valiant effort against Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral but ultimately lost in a hard-fought 3-set clash on Saturday by a scoreline of 6-7, 6-4, 3-6.

Balaji was India’s only remaining hope in the men’s doubles as the likes of Rohan Bopanna, Ritvik Bollapalli and Anirudh Chandrasekar had exited the competition in the very first round. The match between both teams was evenly-contested from the get-go as they were stingy in giving away break points and it was 6-6 in the first set as we headed into the tiebreaker.

While Balaji and Reyes-Varela won the first point in the tiebreaker, Borges and Cabral put in a clinical performance to win it 6-1 to take the first set.

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Balaji and Reyes-Varela mount a comeback

The Indo-Mexican pair weren’t left disappointed after being blanked in the first set tiebreaker and started the second one by breaking the Portuguese duo. They made it 2-0 with Reyes-Varela serving before Borges-Cabral started to use their own service game effectively to make cut the deficit down to one.

Game 10 of the second set saw Balaji and Reyes-Varela race into 40-0 and have 3 set points to their name. While the Portuguese duo was able to save one of them, the Indo-Mexican pair would take the set to tie the match at 1-1 and push it to the decider.

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The 3rd and final set saw both teams start off by winning from their serves before the match turned on its head in Game 4. From Reyes-Varela’s serve, Borges-Cabral were able to break the Indo-Mexican pair to take a 3-1 lead and never showed signs off letting it slip.

Balaji and Reyes-Varela tried their best, but ended up losing the match in 2 hours and 9 minutes.