India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Middelkoop saved two match points but their dream run at the French Open ended with a semi-final defeat at the hands of Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer on Thursday.

Bopanna and Middelkoop, seeded 16th, who have played some exhilarating tennis throughout, lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8-10) to the 12th seeded pair from El Salvador and the Netherlands in the men’s doubles match that lasted two hours and seven minutes.

No Indian has played in a Grand Slam men’s doubles final since Leander Paes’ 2013 US Open triumph and Bopanna was bidding to become the first Indian in nine years to achieve the feat.

The first and last time Bopanna featured in a Grand Slam final was in 2010 US Open with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-haq Quereshi, losing the title clash to the legendary Bryan brothers — Bob and Mike.

Rojer’s first serve accuracy was a huge factor in the outcome of the match. While serving for the opening set, Middelkoop was down by two break chances but saved both to make it deuce.

The Dutch player then fired an ace to get to advantage point and Bopanna sealed the set with a backhand volley winner.

Bopanna crashed a forehand on the net at 30-all to face a break point but served big to save that. The Indian’s second serve was attacked again in the sixth game that resulted in him facing another break chance but saved that too.

He sealed that game with a stunning crosscourt forehand winner that passed Rojer, who was standing in the middle of the court. There was no break of serve in the deciding set and the newly-introduced 10-point tie-breaker was required to decide the winner.

Bopanna and Middelkoop fell behind 2-5 with the Indian making three errors — first with an overhead smash, a forehand return error and then a backhand return.

Mixed doubles title

Japan’s Ena Shibahara and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands claimed their maiden grand slam title when they beat Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Joran Vliegen of Belgium 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 to win the mixed doubles final.