India’s campaign at the 2026 Australian Open, the season’s first Grand Slam, ended when Yuki Bhambri and his partner Andre Goransson of Sweden exited in the third round of the men’s doubles on Monday.
The Indo-Swedish pair, seeded 10th, went down in straight sets to the unseeded Brazilian duo of Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos, losing 7(9)-6(7), 6-3 in an hour and 44 minutes. Matos is a 2023 Australian Open mixed doubles champion.
Bhambri, India’s top-ranked men’s doubles player at world No. 22, and Goransson held serve throughout a closely-fought opening set, which was eventually decided in a tie-break that went the Brazilians’ way.
Bhambri and Goransson drew first blood in the second set by breaking Luz’s serve in the fifth game. However, they were immediately pegged back in the next, with Goransson dropping serve. Bhambri was then broken in the eighth, which eventually sealed the result.
The defeat ended India’s last remaining challenge at the Australian Open this year.
The run marked Bhambri’s first appearance in the third round of the men’s doubles at Melbourne Park since 2014, when he partnered New Zealand’s Michael Venus.
Bhambri’s best Grand Slam showing to date remains the US Open last year, where he reached the semifinals alongside Venus.
Olympian Sriram Balaji’s campaign had ended earlier in the men’s doubles, with the Indian tennis player and his Austrian partner Neil Oberleitner, losing to Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia in the second round.
Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha’s Grand Slam debut ended in a first-round loss, with the Indian and Thailand’s Pruchya Isaro exiting the men’s doubles early.
In the mixed doubles, Bhambri and American partner Nicole Melichar-Martinez exited in the first round, losing in straight sets to sixth seeds Zhang Shuai of the People’s Republic of China and Germany’s Tim Putz.
