PARIS: India's
Rohan Bopanna earned himself an opportunity to become only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam trophy by reaching the
French Open mixed doubles final with partner
Gabriela Dabrowski
, here on Wednesday.
Bopanna and his Canadian partner, seeded seventh, shocked third seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-3 in the semi-finals.
This is only the second time in his career that
Bopanna had reached the summit clash of a Grand Slam. In 2010, he had made the final of US Open with Pakistani parter Aisam-ul-haq-Qureshi and lost to legendary Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike.
They will now fight it out with Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Colombia's Robert Farah, who knocked out Casey Dellacqua and Rajeev Ram 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5 in other semi-final contest.
Only three Indians have so far managed to lay hands on a Grand Slam trophy -- the legendary
Leander Paes,
Mahesh Bhupathi and
Sania Mirza.
Bopanna is the lone Indian to survive in the tournament after the exits of Paes and Sania.