Bhambri hopes to continue dream run after making maiden US Open quarters

Continuing his “dream” run, India’s Yuki Bhambri stormed into his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final after winning the third round of the men’s doubles event with Michael Venus of New Zealand at the US Open 2025 in New York on Tuesday.

Seeded 14th, the Bhambri-Venus duo created a massive upset by defeating the No. 4-seeded German pair of Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz, last season’s finalists, 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes.

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Bhambri, India’s top-ranked men’s doubles player at world No. 32, and Venus broke the German pair in the ninth game of the first set to clinch the opener. In the second set, Bhambri and Venus lost serve in the sixth game but broke back twice in the seventh and ninth to close out the match in straight sets.

Last year, Bhambri had partnered with Frenchman Albano Olivetti for the US Open and had made it to the pre-quarterfinals.

The Indo-New Zealand duo will take on Croatia’s Nikola Mektić and America’s Rajeev Ram in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. Rajeev Ram won the US Open men’s doubles title thrice in a row between 2021 and 2023.

Reflecting on his performance, the 33-year-old Bhambri, who grew up idolising Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, is hopeful of lifting that trophy.

“It’s every person’s dream when they hold a tennis racket. When you go out there, that’s what you want to do. This is what you’ve seen on TV. My idols growing up were Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. You see them do it. That’s one of the reasons why I picked up a tennis racket, watching them win the US Open, watching them win Wimbledon. When you go out there, winning a Grand Slam is obviously a dream to accomplish. That’s what all of us out there are trying to do. We’re putting our best foot forward and hope one day we can achieve that,” Bhambri said on JioHotstar.

Meanwhile, in the junior circuit, India’s campaign ended after the rising Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi gave a scare to second seed Hannah Klugman of Britain before going down 7(7)-6(1), 4-6, 6-3 in the girls’ singles second round. Later, Maaya also bowed out of the doubles event along with partner Laima Cinalli of Argentina. She lost 6-2, 6-2 to fourth seeds Luna Vladson of Lithuania and Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme.

Hitesh Chauhan and Krish Tyagi also lost their respective boys’ doubles second-round matches to exit the tournament.

Earlier, Indian veteran Rohan Bopanna and his partner Romain Arneodo of Monaco crashed out in the opening round on Saturday. Arjun Kadhe and his partner, Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador, also made a first-round exit.